FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ECONOMIC RECESSION EXPECTED TO HAVE A MINOR IMPACT ON THE STRUCTURED CABLING SYSTEMS (SCS) MARKET
HUMMELSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, May 2009
—FTM Consulting announced in its latest study of the SCS market that the current U.S. economic recession, which started in the fourth quarter of 2007 and continues into 2009, was not impacted until the fourth quarter of 2008, when UTP cable volumes declined significantly. Frank Murawski, President of FTM Consulting, Inc. said, “For the last 10 years that we tracked quarterly UTP cable shipment growths, we have not seen the severity of the decrease that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2008, when shipments fell off the cliff. Until that point in time, the market had behaved consistently since 2001, basically being flat market with minor annual growth increases or decreases of no significance occurring. With this dramatic decrease, we believed it was time that we further analyzed this radical departure of the market to ascertain what was occurring. We undertook a comprehensive bottoms up approach in analyzing the market’s performance during the past several years from 2006 through 2009.”
The analysis including charting the UTP cable volume growths over the recessionary period, as it was the metric most commonly associated with the SCS market’s performance. The decrease in UTP cable shipments in 2008 plus the projected larger decrease in 2009 indicated a major impact on the marketplace. However, further analysis of the total SCS shipments during this same period indicated only a minor bump. Detailed evaluation of the market indicated that although cabling volumes, such as UTP cable, were decreasing over the recessionary period, these were more than offset by the higher-performance and, hence more expensive, cabling systems needed to support newer applications, such as data centers, video over IP or wireless. Therefore, the conclusion was that the market did not suffer a major slowdown but rather suffered a mild decline over this recessionary period with most of it occurring during the latter part of 2008 and the first half of 2009.
Further, the analysis indicated a full market recovery in 2010, with the SCS market growing at a 14.9% rate during the next five years.
Details on this data and analysis can be found in FTM Consulting’s latest report: “Economic Recession Impact on the SCS Market.”