Japanese Earthquake Adds to PTFE Shortage

On Friday, March 11th, the 5th strongest earthquake on record hit Japan, and the full extent of the damage still has yet to be determined. The thoughts and prayers of every member of the Allied Family are going out to all the people of Japan and their loved ones around the world.

Of course, in the wake of any tragedy there are impacts felt in many businesses across the globe, including not only the wire and cable industry, but also the entire electronics industry. Already faced with mounting increases of metals and other raw materials, the earthquake in Japan has severely crippled the production of Daikin Industries, one of the leading suppliers of PTFE, PFA, FEP and other raw materials integral to wire, cable and tubing manufacturing. Thankfully, no one at their physical locations was injured and the plants themselves were not damaged. However, the lack of resources like running water and electricity has halted production.

Here is a complete list of the products affected at their plant:

• PTFE
• PFA
• EFEP
• Unidyne (oil and water repellent)
• FEP
• ETFE
• Fluoroelastomers
• Telomer Related Products

With a shortage of PTFE resins already in effect, this tragedy will only deepen the shortage. Several major manufacturers have already announced increases for the coming weeks*:

• Thermax - 5% Increase on all PTFE related products including Lead Wire, Multi-Core Cables and Coax, effective March 14th
• Nexans – 5% Increase on all PTFE related products including Coax, Hook-up and Multi-Core Cables, effective April 1st
• General Cable – 6-8% Increase on Carol® Brand Cable, effective April 4th

Both Harbour Industries and Super-Temp have also stated that they will be raising prices by 5% sometime in April. TE Connectivity also announced price increases this month, unrelated to the problems in Japan: Aerospace, Defense and Marine & Relay products will increase on April 1st and Communications & Industrial Solutions, Global Application Tooling, Enterprise Networks and Automotive will increase on May 1st.

For customers affected by this shortage, Allied is doing all we can to help lessen the impact on you. At this time, we do not know how long this shortage will last, but we will continue to update you as more information comes in.

Please feel free to contact your sales representative with any questions you have regarding this shortage. Visit our Price Increase Survival Guide for some quick tips on how to weather the increases in price and turn time due to the earthquake damage.

Click here to read the letter from Daikin Industries.

Allied Hires Skip Bjorkman as Las Vegas Branch Sales Manager!

Allied is proud to introduce our first sales representative based in our brand new Las Vegas location, Skip Bjorkman! Skip has been in the wire and cable industry for over 30 years, having worked at several major cable distributors like Anixter and Priority Wire & Cable. For the Bjorkman Family, wire & cable is in the blood! His wife, sons, brother-in-law and nephew have all been in the industry since the early 1970's and remain so to this day.

Skip will be the Sales Manager for our Las Vegas branch as we add more sales representatives to the location. He has extensive experience with launching new locations, as he started the Duluth branch of Anixter and most recently the Las Vegas location of Priority.

"I am happy and excited to finish out my career with a great family owned company like Allied Wire & Cable," Skip said.

We're all very excited to add Skip to our wire and cable family, knowing that he will continue to be a success with Allied. Please join us in welcoming Skip to the team!

New Tray Cable Products

We now have two new types of Tray Cable available. Flexible Tray Cable is rated for use in submersible pumps and VFD Symmetrical Lean Cable is meant for use in automated servo motors. Both are WTTC rated for use in wind turbine systems.

Flexible Tray Cable is constructed with layers of stranded bare copper conductors, PVC/Nylon insulation and an oil & tear resistant pressure extruded copolymer jacket. It is UL WTTC and TC rated as well as NFPA 79 rated for industrial machinery. Click here to view the full spec.

VFD Symmetrical Lean Cable is specially constructed to ensure proper earthing paths, which minimizes failures. It has three tinned ground wires and stranded tinned copper conductors that are arranged in layers. The double aluminum foil shield and tinned copper braid give it added protection against interference. Like the Flexible Tray Cable, VFD Symmetrical Lean Cable is NFPA 79 approved for industrial machinery as well as being WTTC and TC rated. Click here to view the full spec.

For more information on these tray cables and any of our other wire and cable products, contact your Allied Sales Representative, or submit an RFQ online.

Click here to see the history of Camden Copper

Click here to see the most up-to-date Comex Copper Prices

Joke of the Month!

A motorist, driving by a Texas ranch, hit and killed a calf that was crossing the road. The driver went to the owner of the calf and explained what had happened. He then asked what the animal was worth.

"Oh, about $200 today," said the rancher. "But in six years it would have been worth $900. So $900 is what I'm out."

The motorist sat down and wrote out a check and handed it to the farmer.

"Here," he said, "is the check for $900. It's postdated six years from now."

Joke Source: www.ahajokes.com/bus164.html