In the exclusive tED magazine/Baird research for 2025’s third-quarter, pricing remains somewhat flat for Datacomm while rebounding in electrical.
The research comes from responses by 18 electrical distributor companies that annually generate more than $7 billion in sales. Compared to the third quarter of 2024, pricing jumped 1.5% in electrical and 0.9% in Datacomm.
Despite the results, distributors say pricing remains inconsistent and gross margins remain a significant issue. Compared to the second quarter of this year, the slightly better pricing reflects a higher price for copper and a stabilization of other commodity prices.
Some of the respondent comments include:
- “Market pricing has been all over the map and very inconsistent.”
- “Shipment and product mix are impacting gross margins. Gross margin rate is still a concern.”
- “Gross margins are up as we are still sitting on some non-tariff inventory.”
- “Margins are fine and remain smaller to last year, but increased labor, freight, raw material costs, plus R&D and capital investment keep pressure on us to improve.”
- “Pricing was a slight positive for our overall sales (estimate about 1-2% lift, primarily due to copper).”
Over the next few weeks, tED magazine will provide more of the exclusive Baird research with results on growth projections for the next four quarters, and a response to how NAED member companies are adapting to the use of AI. You can read about the exclusive Baird research at tEDmag.com or in the December digital-only issue of tED magazine.
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