China’s manufacturing industry is facing a bottleneck not only in high-end products such as chips and industrial software but also in common industrial sectors like wires and cables.
Wires and cables are often referred to as the “blood vessels” and “nerves” of the national economy. In the first half of this year, China imported wires and cables worth 18.4 billion yuan, highlighting the industry’s dependence on key materials and technologies that are still constrained by foreign sources. Meanwhile, there is a severe overcapacity in the production of mid-to-low-end wires and cables, with industry insiders describing prices as cheaper per kilometer than noodles in supermarkets.
According to a recent report by “Shang Lian Media”, in the first half of 2025, the total import amount of wire and cable related products in China reached 18.437 billion yuan. The import value of special and high-end cables showed significant growth, with products such as aircraft, ship ignition wiring sets, and other wiring kits increasing by 21.3%. Conductors with connectors (rated voltage between 80V and 1000V) grew by 34.12%.
The majority of wires and cables imported into China belong to the high-end and high-priced categories, indicating that key materials and technologies are still bottlenecked by foreign sources.
According to an article in the official newspaper of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, “Xinhua Daily,” published in July, China’s advanced cable technology significantly relies on imports. Materials such as high-end flame retardants, 220kV and above ultra-high voltage cross-linked polyethylene insulation, ultra-high voltage semiconductor shielding materials, and special thermoplastic elastomers, are still dependent on imported materials in industries like aviation, aerospace, and robotics.
Statistics show that over 80% of China’s domestic high-end market is monopolized by foreign companies. There is currently a crisis looming as Nordic Chemicals and Dow Chemical, which monopolize the global market for ultra-high voltage underwater cables, are drastically reducing exports of such insulation materials to China.
Additionally, the import price of cables in China is more than three times higher than the export price. Data provided by “Shang Lian Media” indicates that in the first half of 2024, the export price of wires and cables in China was around 66,400 yuan per ton, while the import price was approximately 205,000 yuan per ton.
Similar to many other manufacturing industries, while the high-end sector is facing bottlenecks, the low-end sector is struggling to survive. On Wednesday, Securities Times reported that Liu Lin, Secretary-General of the Communication Cable and Optical Cable Committee of the China Communications Enterprise Association, mentioned that the price of mid-to-low-end cables per kilometer is even cheaper than noodles in supermarkets.
According to the “2024 China’s Top 100 Most Competitive Cable Companies” list released by the Cable Information Research Institute, none of the top ten companies had an average net profit growth rate exceeding 0.05% over the past three years. In fact, four of them had an average net profit growth rate in the negative.
Yubing, the head of a cable company in Suzhou, said, “Even the top ten companies in the industry have such data. It’s even more challenging for us small and medium-sized enterprises. Currently, if we can maintain a profit margin of one to two points, it’s already considered good. Many times, we take orders just to sustain operations and are forced to go for volume sales (low-profit margins).”
Last month, Liu Lin mentioned that the domestic manufacturing capacity for high-voltage and ultra-high-voltage cables is about double the market demand, while the production of mid-to-low-end products exceeds demand by three times.
The wire and cable industry in China consists of over 4,000 large-scale enterprises, more than 70 listed companies, and over 700,000 employees, making it the largest sector among over 20 sub-industries in the electrical and electronic industry. In 2024, the market size of China’s cable industry reached around 1.2 trillion yuan.