Why is there such a big price difference for the same copper wire?

Firstly, physically speaking, copper is divided into purple copper and brass.
Brass is an alloy composed of copper and zinc. Purple copper, also known as pure copper and red copper, is the difference between the two?
1. Appearance: The surface of purple copper has a layer of red cuprous oxide, so it often leans towards purple red or rose red, while brass is usually golden yellow.
2. In terms of composition: The main component of purple copper is copper and has a high copper content, while brass is mainly composed of copper and zinc, and special brass may also contain other substances.
3. Conductivity: Both brass and purple copper contain copper, so they can conduct electricity. However, because brass contains more other elements and purple copper has a better copper composition, the performance of purple copper wires is better than brass.
4. Density: The density of brass is between 8.52-8.62, and the density of copper is between 8.9-8.95, so the density of copper is slightly higher than that of brass.
5. Corrosion resistance: brass<purple copper
6. Cutting performance: brass>purple copper
7. Price: Copper is more expensive than brass
8. Application: Purple copper is commonly used in the wire and cable industry, while brass is mainly used in valves, water pipes, radiators, and so on.
So, the quality of wires made from purple copper as the raw material should be better.
So, what are the pure copper, oxygen free copper, and deoxidized copper promoted by merchants?
Domestic copper processing is divided into four categories according to composition: ordinary copper (T1, T2, T3, T4), oxygen free copper (TU1, TU2 and high-purity, vacuum oxygen free copper), deoxidized copper (TUP, TUMn), and special copper with added small amounts of alloying elements (arsenic copper, tellurium copper, silver copper).
Pure copper, also known as ordinary purple copper, is usually classified into copper 1 (T1), copper 2 (T2), copper 3 (T3), and copper 4 (T4) according to the amount of impurities in industrial pure copper.
Due to the requirement of low resistivity for wires and cables, the copper content must be pure. Therefore, the copper content of wires and cables can reach 99%~99.5%, which means that the quality of wires and cables made from T1 or T2 copper as raw materials is relatively good.
Deoxidized copper is the process of removing oxygen from copper using phosphorus, reducing the oxygen content to below 100ppm, resulting in a decrease in conductivity but better welding performance. Therefore, deoxidized copper is generally preferred for hot water pipes.
Oxygen free copper refers to pure copper that does not contain oxygen or any residual deoxidizers, but in fact, oxygen free copper still contains some impurities. According to regulations, the oxygen content of oxygen free copper should not exceed 0.003%, the total amount of impurities should not exceed 0.05%, and the purity of copper should be greater than 99.95%.
Because the tensile strength of oxygen free copper is superior in all wire diameters, its thermal conductivity and cold and hot processing performance are better. Oxygen free copper is also favored by electronic materials experts due to its excellent plasticity and ductility, excellent cold working performance, and non-magnetic properties.
At present, copper and its alloys have been widely used in the electronics industry. In vacuum electronic devices, oxygen free copper has become the top seven structural materials used in this field.
Because the production of oxygen free copper requires high-quality raw materials, the price of oxygen free copper has always been relatively high in the market, which is why there is such a big price difference for copper wires. The use of oxygen free copper wires in the civilian home decoration wire market is generally positioned as high-end products, such as Prysmian from Italy, General Cable from the United States, and Nexen from France. The reason why they are often expensive is often due to cost considerations.
In summary, it can be seen that copper used for wires is mainly brass and purple copper, as well as ordinary purple copper and oxygen free copper. The better the quality and performance of copper, the higher the price, which is why there are various wires with different prices on the market.