The Wire and Cable Boom Has Arrived: Here’s How Manufacturers Can Maximise the Opportunity

Article written by Stefan Koch, Global Lead of the Metals, Mill Products and Mining Industry Business Unit at SAP SE.

 

From the Asia-Pacific region, India and Africa to Europe and the Americas, signs point to massive growth opportunities for wire and cable manufacturers in 2026 and beyond.

 

Hyperscalers and other entities are building data centers at an unprecedented pace. Telecom companies are aggressively upgrading and expanding their networks and services. Amazon is girding to lay a new subsea fibre-optic cable between the U.S. and the U.K. Energy and utility companies are investing huge amounts in electric grid expansion and modernization to connect to new renewable sources and support growing demand for electric vehicles and EV charging infrastructure. EV manufacturers are packing miles of cable and wire into their cars.

 

And in the middle of it all are wire and cable manufacturers. “From the cables running deep beneath the ocean to those inside the walls of every new server hall, the wire and cable industry is becoming the unseen foundation of the global digital economy,” the IWMA recently observed “With AI, electrification, and clean energy all converging, this sector will play a central role not just in enabling digital growth, but in making it sustainable.”

 

To thrive in that role, manufacturers have to be sure they’re ready operationally and competitively. To that end, here are five areas they should be focusing on in 2026 and beyond:

 

1. Developing new materials. The best way to counter the volatility and cost associated with scarce materials like copper is to develop products that use alternative materials, without compromising performance, reliability and affordability. High-temperature superconductors, carbon fibre, polymer composites, and nanomaterials are among the advanced materials that look highly promising for various industrial applications. Some likely will prove to be viable in certain markets but not in others. It’s up to manufacturers to explore the options, using intelligent design and modeling tools to help them evaluate which are most practical to develop for the specific applications and markets they intend to pursue. It’s also important for them to be active on the recycling front by developing products that include more recycled content and are inherently more recyclable, and by offering recycling programs to customers. Amid mounting pressure to lower carbon footprint and generally behave more sustainably, these are important steps for wire and cable manufacturers as well as their customers.

 

2. Improving product quality and performance. The escalating demands of today’s cable and wire applications, along with the weather extremes that come with climate change, are pushing manufacturers to raise the bar in terms of quality and performance. Prysmian’s recent unveiling of what it claims is the world’s first 160 micron bend-insensitive optical fibre is an example.

By focusing on improving products so they can better withstand the conditions in which they will be deployed, and so they provide greater efficiency and throughput, manufacturers put themselves in a strong position to make inroads in new and existing markets. Here’s another area where intelligent design and modeling capabilities, along with advanced quality-control capabilities, are essential.

 

3. Building value-added services around products. Wire and cable manufacturers are rolling out a growing array of services, including project siting, design and engineering, logistics, installation and commissioning, monitoring and maintenance, performance analytics and the like. They’re doing so because they recognize that the services they package with their products can create and diversify revenue streams, provide inroads into new markets and customers, deepen relationships with existing customers, and differentiate them in a highly commoditized industry. These services also can put midsized and regional manufacturers on stronger footing versus larger competitors.

 

With these benefits in mind, companies could offer smart cables integrated with sensors and communication technologies and packaged with real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance, for example. They could develop a service that alerts customers in advance to potential weather or dangerous conditions, so measures can be taken to protect their infrastructure and the surrounding area. Or, how about offering a wire and cable recycling and recovery service similar to the one launched by Nexans in 2024?

 

One way to make services like these more compelling to customers is to infuse them with

generative AI-driven copilots and AI agents. Another is to ensure they come with strong data security measures, such as by housing data associated with a service in a sovereign cloud.

 

Because service offerings like these will in many cases involve capabilities that aren’t in a manufacturer’s wheelhouse (AI capabilities, weather forecasting, analytics), developing them may require a manufacturer to build business ecosystems with partner companies whose expertise complements their own.

 

4. Improving management of risks related to commodity prices, global tariffs and the like. The global tariff wars could flare at any time, impacting the prices and availability of materials like copper, aluminium, and glass/silica and other materials. Meanwhile, commodity prices for those materials remain volatile. All this puts pressure on manufacturers to better manage commodity price risk as well as supply chain risk. Here’s where intelligent, integrated demand forecasting, procurement, logistics and supply chain management capabilities are a must.

 

5. Bringing a clear understanding of the markets they’re entering and the customers they’re targeting. Every region and country has its own unique market dynamics – government initiatives to encourage data center construction or utility grid modernization, for example, or proximity to resources and suppliers that make pricing of certain materials more or less favorable. It’s vitally important that manufacturers understand how factors like these are shaping the markets in which they are active, as well as the decision-making of customers in these markets. Building business ecosystems with local public and private partners can help in this regard.

 

The signs of a cable and wire boom are everywhere. Cabling demand for data centers is expected to nearly triple between 2024 and 2029, according to CRU. Meanwhile, in India alone, the power cable market is projected to grow at a 12% annual clip for copper and 10% for aluminium between 2025 and 2029. Demand for fibre optic cable is also expected to continue surging. Manufacturers that focus on the aforementioned five areas should be well-positioned to ready to meet the moment—and the operational and competitive challenges it brings.

 

 

Editor’s Note
The following article has been submitted by an external industry contributor. It is authored by a representative of SAP, a global enterprise software provider whose technologies support manufacturing, supply-chain management and digital transformation across industrial sectors. The article offers a broad, forward-looking perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing wire and cable manufacturers as global demand surges across data centres, energy infrastructure, electrification and fibre development. While the views expressed are those of the author, we believe the insights will be of value to our readers as the sector prepares for another period of significant growth and transformation.