Why a cable quote has a shelf life

Almost everything on this desk is priced off a manufacturer's list that changes a few times a year. Copper cable is the exception. The metal inside it trades on an exchange, in dollars, and it reaches an Indian buyer through two multipliers at once: the metal price and the rupee.

What that means in practice is narrow and worth knowing. A quote for connectors, patch panels, racks or active gear will usually still stand a month later. A quote for bulk cable is a quote for that week. When a project's cable schedule is large enough to matter, the useful question to ask a supplier is not only what it costs but how long that number holds, and whether the drum can be blocked at the quoted figure.

The practical move on a long project is to split the schedule: settle the cable early against a firm requirement, and leave the passive hardware to be called off as floors get ready. That is the opposite of how most BOQs are ordered, and it is why a cable line ordered late is the one that most often reopens a closed budget.