Silver Price Increases Expected to Impact PTFE Wire Products

To better serve our customers, our supply chain organization continually monitors relevant economic and industry trends that could impact the wire and cable market.

This effort includes frequent communication with our 200+ manufacturing partners for any potentially adverse effects that could impact availability, delivery, quality, or prices within the wire and cable supply chain.

In recent weeks, we have been alerted to dramatic fluctuations and volatility in the silver market that could have price impacts in many common forms of PTFE insulated wire.

What’s Happening in the Market with Silver?

The overall macro market for silver has plateaued at the highest levels since 2013.

While many market and economic factors drive this price increase, the overall high level of physical demand for silver, due to the overall global economic situation, as well as increased demand for silver jewelry production are two common forces cited by economists for the market situation.

On top of this macro trend, the pricing of silver has been particularly volatile and unpredictable since March of 2020 with some manufacturers seeing their raw silver costs increase by 30% or more in the last 6 months.

While the exact silver content for many types of wire and cable is proprietary information (it is a trade secret for most wire manufacturers) it is a surety that these increases will eventually proliferate throughout the rest of the wire and cable supply chain in the coming weeks and months if they haven’t already.

The magnitude of these price increases to Lapp Tannehill customers cannot be accurately predicted and is not a one-to-one relationship with raw silver prices.

The differences in silver content mentioned above, as well as various manufacturer-specific silver fabrication costs (silver cannot be used in its raw state in the processing of wire and cable), make price increases hard to predict.

Which Products are Potentially Impacted?

Silver is commonly used to plate copper conductors in PTFE-insulated wiring intended for higher temperatures applications. This silver plating aids in corrosion resistance, conductivity, and chemical resistance, as well as general high-temperature performance.

Common Types of PTFE Wire That Could See Price Increases

• NEMA HP3 wire (including Type E, Type EE, and Type ET)
• M16878 wire (including M16878/4, M16878/5, and M16878/6)
• Common types of UL hook-up wire (including UL1180, UL1199, UL1213, and UL1371)

What Can be Done to Mitigate the Impact of PTFE Price Increases?

From a long-term perspective, no manufacturers or distributors can accurately predict the movements of the various metal indexes, including silver.

Rest assured that Lapp Tannehill is in continuous contact with the industry's leading manufacturers to mitigate the impacts of this and all supply chain and raw material events in the market.

We recommend that all of our customers include the expected PTFE wire price volatility and increases into their short and long-term materials planning and procurement activities. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.