In case you haven't notice copper is on the rise again. With gas and copper prices this high its going to be hard to make a profit. Anybody else feeling the pain?

We are definitely feeling it. Copper has tripled since the first of the year. The job I am on now was bid back in 2004 and we are just now starting to put orders in for feeder wire. I just received the first two 480V substation secondaries to one of the buildings to a tune of $100K. And we have only just begun.

My local house said they can't guarantee prices more than 48 hours.

I feel your pain... 500' of 500 MCM = $5,000 just like that. Was the best price we could find, nobody would guarantee the price for more than a few hours, and had to pay green cash to get that price.

Had to change a set of paralell feeders on a 600A 3-phase service because the POCO wouldn't allow splicing what THEY cut off when there was an explosion in THEIR hole. The copper was fine to splice into, and a meg test was done on all feeders, but the POCO said if the feeders weren't replaced and there was a problem, they would shut the building down and bill the customer if the transfomer blew.

The old cable in the conduit and CT was like new. What a waste.

By the way, the original problem was the insulation on the feeders was corroded from years of laying in salt laden water that never drained from the hole. The CB on the XFMR kept tripping as a result, so what was the POCO's solution? Upgrade the transformer from 150KVA to 225KVA. Made for a really nice explosion next time the fault surfaced!

Worst part is none of the scrap yards want the copper with the insulation. Who wants to sit there stripping it off. Anyone want any used 500 MCM cable cheap in good condition, LOL?

Joe

No doubt!

I just picked up some 12/2 NM-B @ $81.00 for 250 ft. And 12/3 UF-B @ 130.00 for 250 ft. This is getting crazy - FAST!

I bought 1000 ft of #12 thhn april 15 and it was 115.00, bought some more last week april 26 and it was 134.00 a thousand for #12

Your going to the wrong scrap yards.

Here they will take either bare or insulated but there is of course a price reduction for insulated.

Last time I went in it was about $0.25 per pound less for insulated.

Heck they will even take cat 5 cable.

600 MCM was quoted over $11.00 per ft today.

Roger

[This message has been edited by distributor x (edited 05-03-2006).]

"its going to be hard to make a profit"

How it it going to be hard to make a profit, you should be making a better profit, the supply house dosen't loose a penny their profits increase, not go down, the only way you can loose, is if you wrote a quotation, or issued a contract without a protection clause in it, or did not pass the cost of increases, on your billing.

[This message has been edited by distributor x (edited 05-03-2006).]

"however when the price of wire drops and I have loaded up on high priced wire, I do lose money as I have to sell at a loss to be competitive. It is not a good situation for anyone"

You sell you material at cost?, you may take a small margin hit, unless you over stocked, but on items like copper wire, all the supply houses here, buy and sell on an index, pretty hard to take a hit, on up or down pricing.

[This message has been edited by LK (edited 05-01-2006).]

250' 12-2 Southwire RX $58 at Lowes today (Ft Myers Fla)

Guys:
5/04/2006.....600KCMil THHN
Cash quote for the day.....$12.00 per foot

John

WOW...
If you guys want to pay shipping..

My prices today..copper Thhn

500 MCM 5.90'
250 MCM 2.80'
600 MCM 6.50'
350 MCM 3.90'
2/0 THHN 1.95'

They were the cheapest, most are around 7.90' for 600 MCM..

In the philly area.
Need a vendor name?

Dnk...

... I just bought 6000'of 14/2rx @ $190.00/1000' or $47.50/250'
...6000'of 12/2rx @ $490.00/1000' ..$61.25/250'
...1500' of 12/3rx @ $460.00/1000'..$115.00/250'
...1500'of 14/3rx @ $255.00/1000' ..$63.75/250'
...and 500' of 12/2UF@ $90.00/250'
For a Grand total of $5652.45..including sales tax...
My supply house said that today is the last day at those prices,..it's only gonna climb from there, so, I stocked up... anyone need any wire???
...I'm definetly gonna have to raise my prices..this is out of control..
Russ

...Guess I'll have to sell my blood again...
maybe an organ or two as well,...



[This message has been edited by Attic Rat (edited 05-04-2006).]