Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Electrical equipment and PVC

PVC is the standard insulation and sheath for low-voltage wire and cable because it is cheap, tough and flame-retardant, so cable makers are a steady PVC buyer; at higher temperatures and voltages and in low-smoke uses, polyethylene and XLPE take over, and in India cable makers buy into a resin market historically up to half supplied by imports.

Electrical equipment (industry) and PVC (chemical): 3 relationships.

How they are linked

1. Cable insulation and sheathing

Physical flow · Strong · PVC → wire and cable makers

PVC compound gives good electrical and mechanical protection at low cost, so it is used to insulate and sheath building wire and low-voltage power cable; power cable makers rate it 4 of 5 on criticality and insulation and polymer suppliers 3 of 5.

  • 4 of 5 criticality for power cable and wire makers (sheathing)
  • about 62% PVC's share of polymers used in Western European wire and cable in 2002, against 31% for polyethylenes

PVC dominates low-voltage power distribution because its mechanical properties make it the most cost-effective choice. The share is an old Western European estimate and shows the pattern rather than today's split; at the time PVC was expected to stay the leading cable polymer with a slowly falling share.

Enterprise types that depend on it:

  • Power cable and wire makers: sheathing (criticality 4 of 5)
  • Insulation, polymer and insulator suppliers: LV cable sheath (criticality 3 of 5)

Sources: Material Insights; Plastemart

2. XLPE and halogen-free compounds

Substitution · Medium · Polyethylene and XLPE can replace PVC

PVC insulation is limited to a 70°C working temperature, while cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) runs to 90°C, so higher-rated cables, and increasingly medium- and high-voltage cables, use XLPE instead.

  • 70°C maximum working temperature of PVC insulation
  • 90°C maximum working temperature of XLPE insulation

Polyethylene is also growing faster than PVC in low-smoke, zero-halogen cables required by newer standards for public places, because PVC contains chlorine, a halogen. As grids add more medium-voltage and high-current cable, PVC's share of cable polymer tends to slip even as total cable volumes rise.

Sources: Prysmian UK; Plastemart

3. Resin price in cable costs

Cost and price · High in India · PVC resin price → cable makers' compound costs

India uses far more PVC than it makes, so import prices and trade duties set domestic resin prices, which cable makers pass into compound and cable costs.

  • nearly 5 Mt India's annual PVC demand, 2025
  • about 1.75 Mt India's domestic PVC capacity, 2025
  • $766 per t minimum import price set on suspension PVC for six months, July 2026

An earlier duty on suspension PVC lapsed in February 2022, and petitioners said imports rose 65% in 2022-23. In August 2025 the trade regulator recommended duties of up to $284 per t on suspension PVC from seven countries; Chinese imports stopped and Reliance raised local prices by ₹2,000 per t, but no government notification followed within three months, so the duties were never imposed. In July 2026 the government instead set a minimum import price for six months. Reliance plans 1.5 Mt a year of new capacity and Adani a 1 Mt plant, which some analysts expected to cut import dependence below 30% by 2027.

Sources: ChemOrbis; Antidumping.vn (citing Indian trade press); India Sea Trade News; Informist; Asianet Newsable

For investors

Key learnings

  1. Low-voltage cable is a steady, structural PVC outlet, but higher-temperature and medium-voltage cable moves to XLPE, rated 90°C against 70°C for PVC.
  2. In India, PVC prices for cable makers are set by imports and trade measures: duties recommended in 2025 lapsed without notification, and a $766 per t minimum import price followed in July 2026.
  3. New domestic PVC capacity from Reliance and Adani could lower import dependence and price volatility for cable makers later this decade.

What to track

  • Suspension PVC CFR India price: Compound cost pressure on cable makers (Weekly · ChemOrbis, Argus)
  • Trade measures on PVC (DGTR findings, duty notifications, DGFT import price floors): Step changes in domestic resin prices (As announced · DGTR, Ministry of Finance, DGFT)
  • Cable makers' gross margins: Ability to pass on resin and copper costs (Quarterly · company results)

For policymakers

Key learnings

  1. India has met up to half of its PVC demand from imports, so trade measures that protect resin makers raise costs for cable and pipe makers downstream, a trade-off seen when the 2025 duty recommendation was left to lapse.
  2. Fire-safety codes for public buildings push cable towards low-smoke, zero-halogen compounds and away from PVC.
  3. Domestic PVC capacity additions would reduce import dependence for a material that grid and housing programmes rely on.

What to track

  • PVC imports by volume and origin: Import dependence and exposure to trade measures (Monthly · DGCI&S)
  • Domestic PVC capacity commissioned: Progress towards lower import dependence (Yearly · Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers)

India

India's PVC demand was nearly 5 Mt a year in 2025 against about 1.75 Mt of capacity, with imports historically meeting up to half of demand; recommended anti-dumping duties lapsed unnotified in late 2025, and a six-month minimum import price of $766 per t was set in July 2026.

Sources

  1. Electrical equipment: materials and inputs, Material Insights (2026)
  2. PVC vs XLPE for insulating cable: what's the difference?, Prysmian UK
  3. Is PVC losing out to polyolefins in the wire and cable industry? (2002 data), Plastemart
  4. Paradox of protection: India's new ADD on PVC imports and the search for supply, ChemOrbis (2025)
  5. India's anti-dumping duty levy on PVC suspension expires without govt notification, Antidumping.vn (citing Indian trade press) (2022)
  6. India initiates anti-dumping probe on PVC resin imports from 7 countries, India Sea Trade News (2024)
  7. Exclusive: DCM Shriram MD sees Jul-Dec PVC realisation down on year on Chinese dumping, Informist (2025)
  8. India imposes minimum import price on PVC resin for six-month period, Asianet Newsable (2026)