Wire and Cable Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecast (2025 - 2030)

Global Wire And Cable Market Trends and Insights

Surging Offshore Wind HV Cable Demand in North Sea & East Asia

Record auction volumes for offshore wind have doubled annual high-voltage submarine cable orders since 2020. Awarded lengths jumped from 759 km in 2016 to almost 2,000 km in 2022, pushing lead times from 12-18 months to 24-30 months for 2025 contracts. The North Sea alone will require over 8,000 km of export links by 2030, while East Asia adds 146 GW of capacity by 2033. Market leaders are expanding: Prysmian signed USD 5 billion of German projects, NKT is doubling its Karlskrona plant output, and Nexans is adding a second Norwegian cable-lay vessel. Only six global suppliers now qualify for ±800 kV/4 GW DC cables, intensifying a capacity crunch.

Accelerated Fiber-to-Home Roll-outs in India & ASEAN

India’s BharatNet budget rose 238% to INR 22,000 crore in 2025, enabling 12 lakh new FTTH lines and 692,676 km of optical fiber^{[2]Kumar, Ashutosh. "Union Budget 2025: 'Higher fiscal allocation for BharatNet to boost broadband in rural schools, health centres.' ETTelecom, February 1, 2025," telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com}. Pre-terminated assemblies and micro-trenching have lowered rural deployment costs by 30% and cut installation time. ASEAN governments are targeting 1 Gbps consumer plans for 40% of households by 2030, accelerating copper switch-off timetables. Consequently, fiber take-rates are nudging cable makers to shift capex from low-margin LAN copper to optical glass preform, ribbon, and micro-duct products.

Electrification of Automotive Harnesses for EV Platforms

The automotive wiring harness segment was valued at USD 86.5 billion in 2024 and is growing swiftly as EV adoption scales. OEMs are migrating from 12 V to 800 V architectures, which shrink charging times and enable smaller conductors. Weight-optimized aluminum and copper-clad aluminum cables cut vehicle mass by up to 40% without sacrificing conductivity. Zonal architectures reduce cable lengths 30% and trim ECU counts by 50-70%, lowering system cost USD 600-800 per vehicle and improving reliability for driver-assist features.

Sub-Saharan Grid Interconnect Projects Unlocking Multilateral Funding

“Mission 300” pools USD 40 billion from the World Bank and African Development Bank to electrify 300 million people by 2030. Early flagship, the OMVG 1,600-km line, now links The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal, bringing renewable power flows to 2.5 million households. The G20’s 2025 agenda prioritizes clean-energy corridors, while IMF studies indicate sustained USD 25 billion annual spend for transmission upgrades imf.org. Global suppliers are qualifying medium-voltage aluminum conductors to meet tropical corrosion challenges and accelerate deliveries via modular tower packages.

XLPE Resin Supply Bottlenecks Limiting EHV Output

Cross-linked polyethylene shortages have stretched lead times for extra-high-voltage cable by 30-40% compared with 2022 levels^{[1]Institution of Engineering and Technology, “A Comparison of Electricity Transmission Technologies: Costs and Characteristics,” theiet.org}. Surface-defect studies show scratches can raise electric-field stress 1.6× and cut breakdown voltage from 129.6 kV to 59.1 kV, forcing more rejects at factory tests. Planned expansions in Texas and Singapore will not reach nameplate capacity until late 2026, prolonging tightness. Grid operators now tender hybrid packages that combine gas-insulated bus ducts and limited cable runs to bridge the supply gap.

Copper Price Volatility Squeezing Contractor Margins in MENA

London Metal Exchange prices soared to USD 5.20/lb in May 2024, prompting cable makers to raise list prices up to 45%. Fixed-price EPC contracts in GCC projects left contractors absorbing 10-15% margin erosion. A one-off U.S. import surge of 500,000 tons in March 2025 tightened global inventories and signaled further turbulence. Bank of America expects average 2025 prices at USD 9,438/tonne, compelling utilities to adopt escalator clauses and prompting some Gulf states to pilot aluminum conductors in distribution feeders.

Segment Analysis

By Voltage: Extra-High Voltage segment powers grid modernization

Low-Voltage cables retained 54% revenue in 2024, anchored by residential build-outs and consumer electronics. Extra- & High-Voltage lines, though smaller in volume, are forecast to post a 7.9% CAGR as offshore wind farms and long-haul renewables drive interconnector projects. Owing to this trajectory, the wire and cable market share of high-voltage products is set to climb steadily through 2030. National Energy Policy targets for carbon-neutral grids stimulate bulk procurement of ±525 kV HVDC links, compressing delivery cycles and locking OEM production slots years ahead.

Investment momentum is most evident in Europe, where combined grid-expansion budgets exceed EUR 50 billion for 2025-2027, and in China’s West-to-East transmission corridors. The wire and cable market size for high-voltage lines is supported by regulatory fast-tracking of renewable-integration corridors. Manufacturers are responding with larger continuous vulcanization lines, on-line partial-discharge monitoring, and robotized insulation extrusion to lift output and cut defect rates.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Cable Type: Fiber-optic innovation reshapes digital infrastructure

Power cables delivered 61% of the 2024 turnover, reflecting grid spending and industrial electrification. Fiber-optic revenue, while smaller, is projected to grow 8.6% annually to 2030 as governments fund universal broadband and cloud hyperscalers build latency-sensitive backbones. This differential positions fiber as the chief growth engine inside the broader wire and cable market. Rising demand for bend-insensitive ribbon and reduced-diameter micro-cables spurs glass-preform suppliers to expand and bring more hydrogen-free processes online.

Beyond telecoms, fiber penetrates factory automation, smart buildings, and harsh-environment sensing. Multi-core optical cables now replace legacy serial copper in robotics, offering EMI immunity and weight savings. As FTTH penetration deepens, the wire and cable market size attributed to optical glass clusters is forecast to overtake indoor Cat6 volumes by the decade’s end.

By Conductor Material: Optical glass disrupts metal dominance

Copper remained indispensable in 2024, securing 68% revenue because of its unmatched conductivity for power and control circuits. Yet optical glass and polymer conductors are clocking a 9.2% CAGR on ultra-high bandwidth demand. The wire and cable market share of glass is poised to expand fastest where 400G to 800G data-center links proliferate. Aluminum’s lighter mass and emerging low-carbon smelting routes draw interest for overhead transmission and for EV harness downsizing, with Hydro’s new low-CO₂ rod mill in Norway scheduled for 2028 service.

Material decisions now include embedded-carbon scoring. Utilities in Scandinavia and California have issued RFPs awarding 10-year frameworks to suppliers that guarantee ≤2 t CO₂e per ton of conductor. Glass fiber manufacturers tout near-zero operational emissions when powered by renewable electricity, aligning with net-zero procurement rules and shifting value perceptions across the wire and cable industry.

By Installation: Submarine cables ride renewable energy wave

Overhead lines maintained 47% revenue in 2024 owing to cost-efficient rural electrification. Submarine links, however, are forecast to rise 10.1% yearly to 2030 on offshore wind export and cross-border interconnectors. The wire and cable market size for submarine projects capitalizes on deep-water floating-turbine arrays and trans-continental data routes. Extended plow burial depths and higher conductor cross-sections require new armoring grades, further lifting average selling prices.

Underground systems gain share in megacities where permitting for overhead corridors is restrictive. South Korea’s 23-km extra-long continuous underground project uses advanced cross-bonded joints that reduce reactive losses by 15%. Utilities in dense corridors increasingly bundle HV cable runs with district-heating pipes, improving land-use efficiency and sharing trench costs.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By End-User: Telecommunications and data centers drive digital transformation

Power infrastructure still anchors demand, capturing 41% of revenue in 2024 as utilities expand renewable integration and harden aging grids. Yet, telecommunications & data centers will lead growth at 9.5% CAGR, propelled by AI super-clusters that each require up to 900 MW and tens of thousands of fiber pairs. This momentum shifts capex allocation within the wire and cable market toward high-fiber-count cables, ribbonizing equipment, and low-loss connectors.

Residential and commercial construction maintains baseline volume in emerging economies. Automotive cabling faces a technology pivot to high-voltage, thermally resistant insulation due to EV adoption, while oil, gas, and chemicals specify flame-retardant, hydrocarbon-resistant jackets for safety-critical zones. Industrial automation spawns demand for hybrid power-and-data cables that offer torsion tolerance for robotic arms, adding specialty niches within the wider wire and cable industry.

Geography Analysis

Asia Pacific anchored 54% of global 2024 revenue and is set to expand at a 6.1% CAGR to 2030. China’s ultra-high-voltage grid corridors and its dominance in polymer compounding secure regional-scale economics, while India’s BharatNet and Smart Metering goals redirect domestic cable factories toward fiber and aerial bundled conductors. Southeast Asian governments are rolling out undersea power interconnections to balance renewable resources, enlarging procurement lots for regional plants.

North America emphasizes renewable integration and resilience. U.S. offshore wind zones along the Atlantic require 10 GW of export capacity by 2030, and the Biden administration’s BEAD program channels federal grants toward rural fiber builds, lifting domestic demand for loose-tube and all-dielectric self-supporting (ADSS) lines. Canada’s hydro-export links to the U.S. Northeast and Midwest seek 525 kV HVDC cables rated for extreme Alpine temperatures.

Europe’s decarbonization pathway hinges on interconnected grids; Germany alone earmarked EUR 21.3 billion for HVDC corridors, contracting LS Cable for multiple packages. The EU Trans-European Networks for Energy scheme accelerates cross-border approvals, enlarging the addressable wire and cable market. Nordic nations’ focus on green hydrogen export compels subsea cable developers to consider dual-use power and data backbones along future hydrogen pipelines.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the underserved growth frontier. Mission 300 and bilateral climate-finance pledges mobilize USD 40 billion for electrification and extend opportunities in 33-kV medium-voltage feeders, insulated overhead cables, and distribution transformers. Localization clauses within Development Bank tenders encourage joint ventures, nudging global OEMs to upskill regional workforces and transfer quality-assurance protocols.