Why copper dominates a cable quote
Metals are most of what you pay for. Copper and aluminium make up roughly 80% of the cost of a typical wire or cable product, according to listed Chinese cable makers' prospectuses and investor disclosures. For power cable the raw material share is higher still, because the conductor is large compared with the insulation and sheath.
The share is not the same for every product. A single-core building wire is almost all conductor with a thin PVC layer, so its price follows copper closely. An armoured cable adds bedding, steel tape or wire and a thick outer sheath, so compounds, steel and processing take a bigger slice. A fibre optic cable has no copper conductor at all and is driven by fibre, tubes, strength members and sheath. When a buyer asks why one line on a multi-item quote moved and another did not, the construction is usually the answer.
How Chinese plants build the quote
"Copper price plus processing fee" is the general pricing model in the cable industry, as a listed cable maker described it in an investor exchange in March 2025. The processing fee covers drawing, stranding, insulation, assembly, sheathing, testing, drums and margin. The copper part is the conductor weight per kilometre multiplied by a copper benchmark.
| Element | What it covers | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Copper (or aluminium) value | Conductor weight per km times the metal benchmark | LME or Shanghai metal price, the benchmark date, cross-section, conductor class |
| Compounds | Insulation, fillers, tapes, sheath | XLPE vs PVC vs LSZH, thicknesses, colour |
| Armour or screen | Steel tape, steel wire, copper tape, braid | Armour type and layers, screen design |
| Processing fee | Line time, labour, energy, routine tests, overhead | Run length per size, number of sizes, tests requested |
| Packing | Wooden, steel-wood or steel drums, lagging, coils, boxes | Drum type, length per drum, private label |
| Terms | Incoterm, payment, validity | FOB or CIF, deposit, length of fixed-price period |
European suppliers often show the same logic in a different format: a list price that includes a copper base, plus a copper surcharge that changes with the daily or monthly metal price. Chinese quotes usually fold both into one number, which is why they carry a short validity. Our cable pricing guide walks through the other cost drivers.
What LME copper has done recently
We quote copper only as dated background, never as a basis for a price. Two recent data points: LME three-month copper reached a record intraday high of USD 14,875 per tonne on 10 September 2026 (Fastmarkets), and it stood at about USD 14,315 per tonne on 21 October 2026 (Investing News). The move between those two dates was several hundred dollars a tonne in about six weeks.
For a buyer, the point is not to forecast copper. It is to understand that a quote with a copper element priced on one date can be stale a few weeks later, in either direction. A plant that holds a price for a month after copper rises is taking a risk it will want paid for somewhere else, often in a thinner construction. A transparent quote that states the copper basis is easier to check than a quote that hides it.
Aluminium follows the same logic with its own benchmark. An aluminium conductor cable such as the reference 0.6/1 kV Al/XLPE/PVC 4x95 mm2 construction on our aluminium cables page carries metal risk too, just on a different exchange price, and a schedule that mixes copper and aluminium sizes needs both benchmarks stated. Steel for armour and the polymers for XLPE, PVC and LSZH compounds also move, but more slowly and by smaller amounts, which is why most plants fold them into the processing fee and revise it only when the change is material. If a supplier revises a quote because of compounds or steel, ask which items changed and by how much, in writing, so the revision can be checked line by line against the earlier offer.
Validity, benchmark dates and booking
Cable quote validity is usually short and counted in days; the exact period is written on each quote. Three choices decide how much copper movement you carry:
- Benchmark: a spot fix on a stated date, or an average over a period, such as a monthly average or a window the customer chooses. Contracts in the wider conductor industry let the buyer choose and write the choice into the contract.
- Fix date: the day the copper part is locked. Common triggers are order confirmation, deposit received or letter of credit opened.
- Booking: once fixed, the plant books copper rod for your order. Changing sizes after booking means re-fixing.
For one-off orders the simplest route is a fixed price within the validity, locked when the deposit arrives. For framework agreements and long projects, a written adjustment formula is fairer to both sides; the price adjustment clause guide explains the common formula shapes.
Reading two quotes side by side
When two offers for the same description differ, check in this order:
- Copper basis: benchmark, date and whether it is LME or a domestic price.
- Construction: conductor class, insulation and sheath thickness, armour. The reference 0.6/1 kV Cu/XLPE/PVC 4x25 mm2 cable on our LV power cable page has a stated insulation of 0.9 mm and sheath of 1.8 mm; a quote with thinner layers is a different cable.
- Conductor resistance: the DC resistance at 20 C should meet IEC 60228 for the class; for 25 mm2 copper Class 2 the maximum is 0.727 ohm/km. A conductor that fails it is effectively undersized, whatever the print says.
- Packing and terms: drum type, length per drum, Incoterm and payment.
Only after those four does price per metre mean anything. The conductor resistance article explains why the DC test is the single most useful check.
What the desk does
We put every shortlisted plant on the same spec sheet and ask each to state its copper basis, so quotes are comparable. We do not publish prices or predict copper, because any number would be out of date before you read it. When you are ready to price a schedule, send the sizes and quantities through the quote form; the reply states the copper basis, validity and the terms, all confirmed in writing.