An Analysis of the Real Differences Between National Standard Cables and Non-Standard Cables
May 10,2019
A sensitive topic that cable industry professionals have become all too familiar with over the years: It’s incredibly difficult to sell cables that meet the national standards. Everyone claims their cables comply with the national standards—even non-compliant cables are labeled as meeting those standards. As a result, they enjoy a significant advantage when quoting prices, leaving cable market players genuinely frustrated and at a loss.
What exactly are the real differences between national standard cables and non-standard cables? You can gain a detailed understanding by examining the following points:
1. The cost is calculated based on the weight of copper. Initially, this approach seemed effective; however, when it came to complying with the national standard, one critical issue was overlooked: your copper is oxygen-free rod copper, whereas non-standard copper is not. When the weights of scrap copper and oxygen-free rod copper are identical, their prices differ by as much as 10%. As a result, despite the national standard cable’s extensive promotional efforts, the campaign ultimately failed—there remains a minimum price difference of 10% between national-standard and non-standard cables.
2. Cutting corners on auxiliary materials. The state has stepped up inspections of resistance, and at the same time, inspection efforts have been intensified for standard products as well. As a result, non-standard cables are once again focusing their attention on auxiliary materials. If copper accounts for 70% of the cable’s cost, then auxiliary materials account for roughly 20%. It’s precisely this 20% that makes the difference—just a slight downgrade in material quality can lead to a price gap of as much as 5% compared to compliant, national-standard cables. As everyone has seen, many of the cables recently exposed have problems stemming from issues with their auxiliary materials.
3. The issue of “short meters” in wires and cables has long been a persistent problem—and it’s actually the hardest one to detect. In the past, this was commonly found in BV wires, such as 95-meter or 98-meter wires, or even 90-meter ones. Now that inspection requirements have increased and all products are subject to thorough checks, non-standard products have once again started focusing their efforts on this very issue. I hope everyone pays close attention: a reduction of just 1 meter out of every 100 meters can translate into a 1% increase in profit.
4. It’s thick at both ends and thin in the middle. In other words, the cable’s ends conform to national standards, while the middle section does not—thus significantly reducing costs and making the cable much cheaper. After all, you can’t exactly cut the cable right from the middle to test it, so that’s precisely how the loophole was exploited.
Right now, what worries me most is the fourth issue: as long as the user organizations and cable manufacturers collude to conceal the truth, there’s simply no way to uncover the problem. Are we supposed to dig up the cables from underground just to measure them? This is precisely why, even though they’re all labeled as “national standards,” the prices can vary so dramatically.
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