BSRIA study shows an increase of pre-terminated fibre connectivity

The recently published BSRIA market intelligence study shows an increase of pre-terminated fibre connectivity of over 11 per cent in 2017, globally.

The structured cabling market increased almost two per cent in 2017 to USD 6.4 billion, an improvement when compared to a one per cent increase in 2016. The cabling installed in data centres performed significantly better than the LAN market, increasing by almost five per cent compared to 1.2 per cent for the LAN segment.

Lone Hansen, Senior Manager – IT Cabling, BACS & Associated Technologies, WMI, said: “Sales of fibre connectivity increased by four per cent and single mode fibre cables by 10 per cent in 2017, while sales of copper cable and connectivity increased only marginally. Sales of pre-terminated fibre units (cassettes, connectors and trunk cables), which is a subset of fibre connectivity, increased by over 11 per cent in 2017, to USD 608 million.

“The commoditisation of cabling with increasing sales of solutions sold by low cost suppliers and distributor’s private labels continued in 2017 and are now including the whole product range, even Cat 6A cabling and pre-term fibre connectivity.

“The average price of copper cable decreased by 1.7 per cent. Some countries experienced price increases due to the increased cost of copper material and increasing sales of Cat 6A, but over-capacity in the industry, commoditisation and competition forced prices down in most countries. The share of high value plenum cables, mainly sold in the US, remained stable, accounting for close to 80 per cent of sales in the US.”

Sales of Cat 6A have increased and account for 29 per cent of all cabling systems by value in 2017 up from 27 per cent in 2016. Sales of Cat 6 dominates the global market with over half the sales.

This year’s study (published June 2018) included 33 countries and South East Asia. 14 countries were researched in 2017/18, and 10 countries in 2016 (Columbia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Italy, Qatar, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey). Data from a further seven countries researched in 2015 is included (Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Sweden) and the Netherlands, Peru and Poland from 2014.