BSRIA study shows global cabling market increased in 2016June 2017

The recently published BSRIA market intelligence study shows that the global structured cabling market increased slightly in 2016 after a decline of almost three per cent in 2015 due to the effect of the strong US$.

Cabling installed in data centres performed better than the LAN market increasing by 1.9 per cent compared to a flat (0.2 per cent) LAN segment. The cabling share installed in data centres remained in line with 2014 and 2015 at 20 per cent with 80 per cent being installed in LAN applications.

Lone Hansen, WMI Manager – I.T. Cable Group, BSRIA, said:

“The forecast for 2017 – 2018 is positive with expected market growth of just over three per cent each year, followed by a dip in 2019. LAN is expected to grow by almost three per cent in 2017 and 2018, which cabling installed in data centres should increase by four – five per cent in 2018 and 2019.

The commoditisation of cabling with increasing sales of solutions sold by low cost supplier and distributors’ private labels continued in 2016. The low cost solutions mainly operate in the Cat 5e and Cat 6 day-to-day and small project segment, but some are increasingly focusing on Cat 6A and fibre products and larger projects.

Sales of Cat 6A have increased and accounted for 19 per cent of all cabling systems by volume in 2016. The uptake of Cat 6A solutions is highest in Europe and the Middle East, but measured in cabling installed Europe accounts for 55 per cent followed by 20 per cent in Asia Pacific, 18 per cent in the Americas and eight per cent in Middle East. Cat 5e is still very much sold in Asia Pacific with over half of all cables shipped followed by Americas with a third.

The share of fibre, primarily fibre connectivity continue to increase and accounts for 73 per cent of the cabling installed in data centres. Most of the hyperscale data centres are 90 per cent – 100 per cent fibre and both medium and large data centres is seeing an increase in use of fibre. Singlemode (SM) is increasing, but sales are still low compared to multimode. However, a few hyperscale DCs have specified SM as their main cabling type. Copper cabling is mainly installed in computer rooms and small data centres.”

Why you need this report

The World Excel Overview provides information on market size, historic data and forecast segmented by product type (data centre vs LAN, copper and fibre, cable and connectivity, categories, pre-terminated fibre (MPOs/MTPs)) and sales by supplier.

The overview also includes a summary with key numbers and trends as well as an overview of the top 12 suppliers by product area and region.

The country reports include detailed information about the market overall, LAN vs data centres, trends, forecast, key suppliers, segmentation by product type and channel to market.

For more information on WMI’s reports and services, contact:

• EMEA sales enquiries contact: BSRIA UK: wmi@bsria.co.uk ¦ +44 (0) 1344 465 540
• America sales enquiries contact: BSRIA USA: sales@bsria.com ¦ +1 312 753 6800
• China sales enquiries contact: BSRIA China: bsria@bsria.com.cn ¦ +86 10 6465 7707

Contact details (content & methodology):- lone.hansen@bsria.co.uk

• The World Overview (excel) cover 35 countries plus South East Asia 2003 – 2016 and 2017 – 2021.
• 19 countries are updated yearly, nine countries every year, the others typically every two – three years.