ASGT Cables · Staff training
You will be quoting cables to customers who know more about them than you do. This is what you need so that stops being true. Every price in here is one ASGT has actually paid.
ASGT makes between 5% and 10% gross profit on a cable order. Sometimes as little as 2–3% when selling to another cable dealer. That is the entire margin — everything else goes to the supplier.
Now consider a real pair of cables from our own catalogue.
| Cable | Price |
|---|---|
| 4C × 6mm² CU/PVC/PVC 450/750V flexible | 7.70 SR/m |
| 4C × 6mm² CU/XLPE/PVC 0.6/1kV | 16.00 SR/m |
Same core count. Same size. Same conductor. Both are "4 core 6 mil". One costs more than twice the other, because the letters in the middle are different.
What the mistake costs
A customer asks for the 16.00 cable. You quote the 7.70 one because it looked the same. On a 1,000 metre order you have promised 7,700 SR of cable that costs you 16,000 SR to buy.
You lose 8,300 SR on a deal that should have made you about 1,300.
That is why this document exists. Not so you can design electrical systems — that is the customer's engineer's job, never yours. It is so you can tell one cable from another and never quote the wrong one.
Here is the single most useful idea in this whole document:
A cable spec is a physical description of the cable, read from the inside out.
When you see CU/XLPE/PVC, that is not a list of ingredients. It is the layers, starting at the centre of the cable and working outward. Copper at the middle, XLPE wrapped around it, PVC on the outside.
Every cable spec has the same four parts, in roughly this order:
| Part | Example | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Core count | 4C, 4X, 4 core | How many separate wires inside |
| Size | 240mm², 240 SQ.MM | How much copper in each core |
| Materials | CU/XLPE/PVC | The layers, centre outward |
| Voltage | 0.6/1kV, 450/750V | What it is rated to survive |
They arrive in any order and any spelling. 4CX240, 4 x 240 mm2, 4C 240 SQ.MM all mean the same thing. Cable OS handles that decoding for you, but you need to be able to check its answer.
The metal in the middle. Only two options matter.
| Code | Metal | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CU | Copper | Almost everything ASGT sells. Better conductor, more expensive. |
| AL | Aluminium | Cheaper and lighter, but needs a bigger size for the same current. Used on long overhead runs and large distribution. |
You will occasionally see NCU or SCU on Riyadh Cable and Bahra datasheets. On the sheets we hold, the same cable appears as both NCU-XLPE-PVC and CU-XLPE-PVC with identical technical values — so it reads as a labelling convention rather than a different metal. If a customer asks, say you will confirm with the manufacturer. Do not guess.
Never do this
Never substitute aluminium for copper because it is cheaper, and never the reverse. They are different products with different current ratings and different connection hardware. If the enquiry says CU, quote CU.
240mm² is the cross-sectional area of the copper in one core. Not the thickness of the cable. If you sliced the cable and measured just the metal in one core, you would get 240 square millimetres.
Cable is only made in a standard series of sizes. Learn this list — a customer asking for 5mm² or 45mm² has made a mistake, and spotting it saves a wasted enquiry:
1.5 · 2.5 · 4 · 6 · 10 · 16 · 25 · 35 · 50 · 70 · 95 · 120 · 150 · 185 · 240 · 300 · 400 · 500 · 630
Notice each step is roughly 1.5 times the one before. That is deliberate — it is an international standard, IEC 60228, and every manufacturer follows it.
Some cable, particularly THHN wire, is sized in AWG — American Wire Gauge. Two things make this dangerous:
| AWG | Actual copper area |
|---|---|
| 14 AWG | 2.08 mm² |
| 12 AWG | 3.31 mm² |
| 10 AWG | 5.26 mm² |
| 8 AWG | 8.37 mm² |
| 6 AWG | 13.30 mm² |
What the mistake costs
A supplier quotes 6AWG @ 1,065 SR / roll. If you record that as a 6mm² cable, you have created a product that does not exist, priced from one more than twice its size.
Cable OS refuses to convert AWG to mm² for exactly this reason. If a spec says AWG, keep it in AWG. Never translate.
Two different jobs, often the same material, which is why people confuse them.
In CU/XLPE/PVC: XLPE is the insulation, PVC is the sheath. In CU/PVC/PVC: PVC does both jobs.
| Code | Material | Max temp | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| PVC | Polyvinyl chloride | 70°C | Building wire, flexible cable, cheaper power cable |
| XLPE | Cross-linked polyethylene | 90°C | Almost all LV power cable |
| XLHF / LSZH / LSF | Halogen-free | 90°C | Tunnels, hospitals, airports — anywhere smoke in a fire would be deadly |
| H07RN-F | Rubber | 60°C | Heavy flexible cable, generators, site power |
| HMWPE / PVDF | Specialist plastics | — | Rare. Cathodic protection, chemical plants |
XLPE survives 90°C where PVC survives 70°C. A hotter cable can carry more current safely, so an XLPE cable of a given size carries more amps than the same size in PVC. That is why XLPE is the default for power distribution and PVC is used for building wire and flexibles.
Halogen-free is not optional
If a customer asks for LSZH, XLHF or halogen-free, they are almost certainly building something where the fire code requires it — a tunnel, a hospital, an airport. You cannot substitute ordinary PVC to save money. It will fail inspection and it will come back to us.
Armour is a layer of metal wire wrapped around all the cores, underneath the outer sheath. It is there for one reason: physical protection. It has nothing to do with electricity.
| Code | Armour | Used on |
|---|---|---|
| SWA / SW | Steel wire armour | Multi-core cable — 2, 3, 4 core and up |
| AWA | Aluminium wire armour | Single-core cable |
| none | Unarmoured | Indoors, in conduit, on trays |
This is the fact that will make you sound like you know cables.
Steel is magnetic. In a single-core AC cable, the alternating current creates a magnetic field that induces currents in any magnetic material around it. Steel armour on a single-core cable would heat up and waste energy. Aluminium is not magnetic, so it does not.
In a multi-core cable the fields of the cores cancel each other out, so steel is fine — and steel is stronger and cheaper.
So if you see 1CX300mm² CU/XLPE/AWA/PVC, that AWA is not a typo or a cheaper option. It is required.
Armour is never optional
If the enquiry says SWA and you quote unarmoured, you are quoting a cable that will be destroyed within a year of being buried. The customer will reject it on site and we pay to replace it.
Note from our own data: the armour premium is 31% on 4mm² but only 6% on 185mm² — because on big cable the copper dominates so heavily that the steel barely registers.
A core is one complete conductor with its own insulation. The number tells you what the cable is for.
| Cores | What it is for |
|---|---|
| 1 core | A single conductor. Building wire, earthing, or very large power cable run as separate singles. |
| 2 core | Single-phase — live and neutral. Lighting, small appliances. |
| 3 core | Three-phase without a neutral, or single-phase with an earth. Motors, pumps. |
| 4 core | The most common. Three phases plus neutral. Standard power distribution. |
| 5 core | Three phases, neutral and earth. Where a separate earth conductor is required. |
| 7, 8, 10, 16, 18 core | Control cable. Many small conductors carrying signals, not power. |
Two systems are in use and you will see both:
Both appear on our own datasheets. Bahra's unarmoured sheets say red/yellow/blue/black; their armoured sheets say brown/black/grey/blue. Neither is wrong.
One colour rule is absolute. Yellow-green — written Y/G, YG or L/YG — is always earth. It is never used for anything else, anywhere in the world. If a customer specifies Y/G, they want an earth conductor.
You will see cables written like 3X240+120 or 3X10+6. That is a 3.5-core: three phase cores of the first size, plus one smaller neutral of the second. Riyadh Cable lists thirty-six of them and we carry all thirty-six.
It is not a 3-core and it is not a 4-core. A 4-core has four conductors all the same size. A 3-core has no neutral at all. A 3.5-core has a neutral about half the size of the phases.
In a balanced three-phase circuit the currents in the three phases cancel one another out, and the neutral carries almost nothing. Making it full size would be paying for copper that never does any work — and copper is most of what a cable costs.
So on a large balanced load — a distribution board, a motor control centre — a 3.5-core does the same job as a 4-core for less copper. Whether it is actually cheaper depends on the armour and the day's price, so look it up rather than assuming.
This is the part that matters. A reduced neutral is only safe when the neutral really does carry little current.
| Situation | Why a reduced neutral is wrong |
|---|---|
| Unbalanced load | Lots of single-phase equipment spread unevenly across the three phases means real current in the neutral. A reduced neutral runs hot. |
| Heavy harmonics | LED lighting, VFDs, computer supplies and UPS systems push third-harmonic current that adds up in the neutral instead of cancelling. The neutral can end up carrying more than any phase. |
| The customer said 4-core | Not our call to change. Offer it as an alternative if you like, but say plainly what it is. |
If you are not sure, ask before you offer it. Substituting a 3.5-core for a 4-core to win on price, on a load that turns out to be unbalanced, is a fault the customer only discovers after installation — and it is our cable that gets blamed.
Both sizes appear: 3C 240+120mm² CU/XLPE/PVC 0.6/1kV black. If you see one size only — 3C 240mm² — that is a plain 3-core with no neutral. Different cable, different price.
Written as two numbers, like 0.6/1kV or 450/750V. The first is the voltage between one conductor and earth. The second is the voltage between two conductors.
| Grade | Also written | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| 300/500V | — | Light flexible cable, appliance cords |
| 450/750V | — | Building wire, earthing cable, panel wiring |
| 0.6/1kV | 1kV · 1000V · 600/1000V | The standard LV power cable grade. Almost everything we sell |
| 600V | — | THHN wire, American standard |
Four ways to write one grade. 0.6/1 KV, 1kV, 1000V and 600/1000V are all the same cable. Suppliers use all four. Cable OS converts them to one form so the same product doesn't get entered twice.
Never quote down
A 450/750V cable is cheaper than a 0.6/1kV cable of the same size. It is cheaper because it is a different cable with thinner insulation. Quoting 450/750V against a 0.6/1kV enquiry is not a saving — it is the wrong product, and on a power circuit it is dangerous.
This is the part that confuses everyone, because suppliers use trade names rather than specs. Here is what each name actually means.
| Name | What it really is | Typical spec |
|---|---|---|
| LV power cable | Multi-core distribution cable. The main product. | 4CX240 CU/XLPE/PVC 0.6/1kV |
| NYA also: building wire | Single core, PVC insulated, no outer sheath. Pulled through conduit in buildings. | 1CX2.5 CU/PVC 450/750V |
| Grounding cable | The same thing as NYA. Grounding is the use, not the product. | 1CX10 CU/PVC 450/750V Y/G |
| THHN | American building wire. PVC insulated with a thin nylon jacket. Sized in AWG. | THHN 1X12 AWG CU/PVC/NYLON 600V |
| Flexible cable | Same materials, but the copper is many fine strands instead of a few thick ones, so it bends easily. | 4CX35 CU/PVC/PVC 0.6/1kV flexible |
| H07RN-F rubber flexible | Heavy rubber flexible cable. Generators, welding sets, site distribution. | 4CX35 CU H07RN-F |
| Bare copper | No insulation at all. Just the conductor. Buried earth grids and earth bars. | 1CX10 bare copper |
Look at what our supplier actually wrote to us:
AVAILABLE GROUNDING CU/PVC-450/750 VOLT – 91 MTR ROLLS (RED, YELLOW, BLUE, BLACK, YG, GREEN COLOUR AVAILABLE)
A grounding cable in red? Or blue? That gives it away. It is single-core PVC building wire, offered in any colour. When someone buys it in yellow-green they use it for earthing and call it a grounding cable. Same cable.
Our own price list proves it. Riyadh's "NYA 4mm²" and Bahra's "grounding 4mm²" are both 210.00 SR per 91-metre roll. Identical to the halala.
It looks like nonsense but every letter is a code:
| H | Harmonised — meets the European standard |
| 07 | Rated 450/750V |
| R | Rubber insulation |
| N | Polychloroprene sheath — tough, oil-resistant |
| F | Flexible |
Suppliers write it as H07RN-F, H07RNF or H707 RNF. All the same.
This section will save you more money than any other. Cable is sold three ways, and confusing them is the single most expensive mistake in this business.
A roll is 91 metres. That is 100 yards, an old imperial measure that stuck. Small wire — 1.5mm² to about 10mm² — comes on rolls.
A drum is usually 500 metres. Big cable comes on wooden drums that need a forklift. A 500 metre drum of 4C 120mm² weighs about three tonnes.
The 91× error
A supplier writes 1 CORE 4 MM2 @ 210.00 SR / ROLL. If you read that as 210.00 per metre, you have overpriced by 91 times and lost the deal. If you read a per-metre price as a per-roll price, you have underpriced by 91 times and lost money on every metre you deliver.
Always convert to a per-metre figure before comparing anything: 210.00 ÷ 91 = 2.31 SR/m. Cable OS does this automatically and shows both.
In the yard you will often see a drum before you see any paperwork. The wooden cheeks are painted, and the colour tells you the maker at twenty paces.
| Drum colour | Maker |
|---|---|
| Red | Bahra Cables |
| Light green | Riyadh Cables |
| Black | Jeddah Cables |
Yawar, 8 September 2026. It is a yard shortcut, not a specification — a repaint, a returned drum or a maker changing supplier would all break it. Confirm from the drum label before you ship anything. The colour tells you where to look; the label tells you what it is.
The drum colour is not the cable colour. They are two different facts and they are easy to confuse. When Cable OS says a cable is black, that is the sheath — the cable itself. A Bahra cable on a red drum is still a black cable. Never enter a drum colour as the cable's colour: colour is part of how a product is identified, so a wrong one splits one cable into two products at two prices.
Some suppliers will cut any length. Some sell full rolls or drums only. This is not something you can work out from the spec — you have to ask.
It matters enormously. If a customer wants 60 metres and the item is a non-cuttable 500 metre drum, they are buying 500 metres. Quote the 60 and you have promised 500 metres of cable at 12% of its cost.
A cheaper supplier who only sells full drums may be more expensive in practice than a dearer one who cuts. Always check the cutting rule before you compare prices.
Copper is 60 to 70 percent of what a cable costs. That single fact lets you check any price in your head.
Because copper dominates, price scales roughly with the total copper in the cable — that is, cores × size. From our own catalogue:
| Cable | Copper | Price | SR per m per mm² |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4C × 6mm² | 24 mm² | 16.00 | 0.67 |
| 4C × 25mm² | 100 mm² | 52.00 | 0.52 |
| 4C × 240mm² | 960 mm² | 540.00 | 0.56 |
Forty times the copper, thirty-four times the price. The last column barely moves.
The rule of thumb. Across all 94 cables ASGT holds, price per metre per mm² of copper falls between 0.30 and 2.00 SR. Small cables sit at the top of that range because insulation and jacket are a bigger share. Big cables sit near the bottom.
If a price works out below 0.25 or above 3.00, something is wrong — almost always the unit. Check whether it is per metre or per roll.
A real error this caught
A supplier quoted 5CX25mm² flexible @ 62.00 SR / ROLL without saying how long a roll was. Someone entered 91 metres. That works out at 0.68 SR/m for a cable carrying 125mm² of copper — about 0.005 per mm², a hundred times below everything else on file.
The truth: 62.00 was per metre. Quoting from the wrong figure would have sold that cable at less than 1% of its cost.
Here is an actual message from Electrical Elements. Read it line by line.
WIRE NYA CU/PVC – 450/750 VOLT 100 YARD ( 91 MTR ROLL ) 1 CORE 2.5 MM2 @ 135.00 SR / ROLL 1 CORE 4 MM2 @ 210.00 SR / ROLL RED, YELLOW, BLUE, BLACK, GREEN, YG - COLOURS AVAILABLE RIYADH CABLE
What it says:
So that message is two products, not five lines. Cable OS reads this structure automatically — but you need to see it too, because the day it gets one wrong you have to notice.
GROUNDING CABLE 1CX10mm² CU/PVC-450/750 V-Y/G -10,000 MTR @ 6.40 SR / MTR RIYADH CABLE @ 6.00 SR / MTR BAHRA CABLE BOTH EX STOCK
One cable. Two suppliers' brands at two prices, 40 halalas apart. Both in stock. That is a genuine choice to put in front of a customer — and on a 10,000 metre order the difference is 4,000 SR.
Supplier is not brand. Electrical Elements is a supplier — a trader who sells us cable. Riyadh, Bahra, Jeddah are brands — the factories that make it. One supplier sells several brands. Never mix the two up on a quote.
Every one of these has already happened, either to us or to someone in the trade.
When you are not sure
Ask the supplier. A ten-minute delay costs nothing. A wrong quote costs the deal, and sometimes costs money on a deal you won.
Answer before opening each solution. Twenty-four correct or better and you are ready to quote. Below twenty, read it again.
In CU/XLPE/PVC, which layer is on the outside of the cable?
PVC. The spec reads from the inside out, so PVC is the outer sheath.
What does 240mm² measure?
The cross-sectional area of the copper in one core — not the thickness of the whole cable.
Which is thicker, 6 AWG or 14 AWG?
6 AWG. The AWG number runs backwards — smaller number means thicker wire.
A customer asks for 6 AWG. Can you quote them 6mm²?
No. 6 AWG is about 13.3mm² — more than twice the size. Never convert AWG to mm².
What is the difference between insulation and sheath?
Insulation wraps each core individually so the cores don't touch. The sheath is the single outer jacket over all of them.
Why does XLPE cost more than PVC?
It survives 90°C against PVC's 70°C, so the same size carries more current safely.
What is armour for?
Physical protection — mainly against being crushed, cut or dug up when buried. Nothing to do with electricity.
Why does single-core cable use aluminium armour instead of steel?
Steel is magnetic. In a single-core AC cable it would heat up from induced currents. Aluminium is not magnetic. In multi-core cable the fields cancel, so steel is fine.
What does yellow-green always mean?
Earth. It is never used for anything else, anywhere.
How many metres in a roll?
91 — that is 100 yards.
A supplier quotes 210.00 SR / 91 MTR ROLL. What is the per-metre price?
210 ÷ 91 = 2.31 SR/m.
Are 0.6/1kV and 1000V the same grade?
Yes. So are 1kV and 600/1000V. Four ways of writing one thing.
A customer asks for 0.6/1kV. You have 450/750V cheaper. Quote it?
No. It is cheaper because it is a different cable with thinner insulation. On a power circuit it is dangerous.
What is NYA?
Single-core PVC building wire, 450/750V, no outer sheath. Pulled through conduit.
How is grounding cable different from NYA?
It isn't. Same cable. Grounding is the use, not the product — which is why suppliers offer "grounding cable" in red, blue and black as well as yellow-green.
What is the difference between flexible and rigid cable of the same size?
The copper. Flexible uses many fine strands so it bends; rigid uses fewer, thicker ones. Same materials, different construction, different price.
What does the F in H07RN-F stand for?
Flexible. H = harmonised, 07 = 450/750V, R = rubber insulation, N = polychloroprene sheath.
Roughly what share of a cable's cost is the copper?
60 to 70 percent.
4C × 6mm² is 16.00 SR/m. Roughly what would you expect 4C × 25mm² to cost?
Around four times as much, so 55 to 70 SR/m. The real figure is 52.00.
A 4-core 25mm² cable is quoted at 3.00 SR/m. Is that plausible?
No. 100mm² of copper at 3.00 SR/m is 0.03 per mm² — about twenty times below anything real. Almost certainly a roll price being read as a metre price.
Electrical Elements, Riyadh Cables — which is the supplier and which is the brand?
Electrical Elements is the supplier, the trader we buy from. Riyadh Cables is the brand, the factory that makes it.
A customer wants 60 metres. The item is a 500 metre drum, full unit only. What do you quote?
500 metres — one whole drum — and you tell them plainly that is the minimum. Quoting 60 would leave us paying for the other 440.
What does SWA mean, and where in the cable does it sit?
Steel wire armour. It sits between the insulated cores and the outer sheath.
A customer specifies LSZH. Can you supply ordinary PVC to save them money?
No. LSZH is halogen-free and is specified because a fire code demands it. PVC would fail inspection.
Decode: 3CX4 mm² CU/XLPE/SWA/PVC 0.6/1 KV
Three cores, 4mm² copper each, XLPE insulated, steel wire armoured, PVC sheathed, rated 0.6/1kV.
Which sizes are missing? 2.5 · 4 · 6 · 10 · 16 · __ · __ · 50
25 and 35.
How many products is this message?
THHN WIRE-500 FEET (152 MTR) ROLL- 14 AWG @ 175.00 SR 12 AWG @ 275.00 SR BAHRA CABLE
Two — 14 AWG and 12 AWG. The first line is a header setting the product type and roll length; the last line is the brand. Both apply to both items.
That message says @ 175.00 SR with no unit. Per metre or per roll?
You cannot tell, so you must ask. The header mentions a 152 metre roll, which suggests per roll — but suggesting is not knowing, and the difference is 152 times.
A price on file is dated six weeks ago. Can you quote from it?
Not without reconfirming. Cable prices move with copper, and six weeks is long enough for a real change.
A customer asks whether we have 4C 240mm² in stock. What do you say?
That you will confirm with the supplier. We hold no stock ourselves, so we can never promise availability — every quote carries "subject to availability confirmation" for that reason.
One last thing
Nothing in this document tells you what size of cable a job needs. That calculation depends on current, distance, installation method, ambient temperature and grouping — and it is the customer's engineer's job, never ours.
If a customer asks you to size a cable for them, say we quote what they specify and we do not do the electrical design. Getting that wrong burns a building down.