Our mortar plant at Peterlee, County Durham, suffered a cable theft last week.  The offenders went to significant lengths to angle grind substantial sections of palisade fencing before removing approximately 30 metres of ‘live’ 75mm cable.

The scrap value of copper is currently at an all-time high and economists predict the current spiral is likely to continue. As such we can expect cable to continue to attract offenders.

Aside from the costs of material replacement, the site down-time caused by these offences can run to £10s if not £100s of £1,000s in lost business. Additionally, it should be noted, offenders on this and previous occasions have taken huge personal risks by removing the cable whilst live!

Site Managers are encouraged to consider the preventative measures available to them to hide cables and make them otherwise difficult if not impossible to remove. Safely burying cables, where possible under suitable sleepers or similar obstacles, are often effective actions.

Colleagues at Peterlee have managed to enclose the replacement cable into steel tubing, welded into position along the fence line providing an imaginative alternative to the option to bury the asset.

CEMEX have partnered with forensic marking specialists, SelectaDNA, enabling us to mark cable and other high value assets with a unique solution, identifying such assets using an ultra-violet solution with an intrinsic DNA identifiable only to CEMEX.  Available in a clear solution or an anti-tamper type grease (as pictured), Managers interested in asset marking of this nature are invited to make contact with Colin Jones or John Sweeting of the UK Security team.