8-K

                                  UNITED STATES
                       SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
                              Washington, DC 20549



                                    FORM 8-K

                                 CURRENT REPORT



                     Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the
                         Securities Exchange Act of 1934




       Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): October 28, 2003




                            GENERAL CABLE CORPORATION
             (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)



         Delaware                    1-12983                    06-1398235
- ----------------------------  ------------------------      -------------------
(State or other jurisdiction  (Commission File Number)       (I.R.S. Employer
      of incorporation                                      Identification No.)



                                4 Tesseneer Drive
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Highland Heights, Kentucky 41076
                (Address of principal executive offices/Zip Code)



                                 (859) 572-8000
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Registrant's telephone number, including area code




                                 Not Applicable
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          (Former name or former address, if changed since last report)







ITEM 5.  Other Events

     On October 28, 2003, the registrant issued a news release, a copy of which
is filed as Exhibit 99.1 hereto and is incorporated herein by reference.

ITEM 7.  Financial Statements and Exhibits

         (c)  The exhibit accompanying this report is listed in the Index to
              Exhibits.






                                    SIGNATURE


     Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned hereunto duly authorized.


                                         GENERAL CABLE CORPORATION


Date:    October 28, 2003                By: /s/Robert J. Siverd
                                             ---------------------------------
                                             Robert J. Siverd
                                             Executive Vice President and
                                             General Counsel





                                INDEX TO EXHIBITS


  Number    Description                                        Method of Filing
  ------    -----------                                        ----------------
   99.1     General Cable Corporation news release dated       Filed herewith
            October 28, 2003

EX-99

                                                                  Exhibit 99.1

    General Cable Announces Plant Closure and Feasibility Studies

    HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 2003--General
Cable Corporation (NYSE:BGC) announced today that it is closing its
Taunton, Massachusetts manufacturing facility. This 131,000 square
foot facility employs 77 associates, produces bare copper strand and
PVC jacketing compounds and supplies them to other General Cable
manufacturing facilities to produce a variety of wire and cable
products, primarily in the Company's Industrial & Specialty segment.
The Company will incur a charge in the fourth quarter of 2003 related
to the closure of the plant and estimates the amount of the charge to
be approximately $7.0 million, of which about $4.0 million will be
cash costs.
    The Company also announced it has initiated feasibility studies at
its South Hadley, Massachusetts and Marion, Indiana manufacturing
facilities. The studies will consider whether the Company should
continue operations at these locations or whether the product lines
should be moved to other Company facilities or, with regard to the
South Hadley facility, outsourced to a wire conductor fabricator. The
Company plans to announce the results of its studies either later this
quarter or early next year and would take additional charges over the
period the operations are wound down should the Company decide to
rationalize these two industrial cable facilities. The estimated cost
to rationalize these facilities could approximate $20 million, with
cash costs about one-third of this amount.
    "The unprecedented decline in North American industrial activity
over the last several years has resulted in a significant reduction in
the production loads in our industrial cable plants. This decline in
production volume has had a negative impact on the Taunton plant's
competitive cost position and has necessitated this action," said
Gregory B. Kenny, President and Chief Executive Officer of General
Cable. "The Taunton plant closure will reduce our overall fixed costs
as we outsource the products the plant makes at a lower cost than we
can manufacture them ourselves."
    "The decision to close the facility was based strictly on
economies of scale and our need to be the low-cost producer in a
highly competitive industrial cable market," added Kenny. "Our
associates in Taunton have worked hard to improve manufacturing
efficiencies and reduce costs over the past several years and I would
like to thank them for their efforts and dedication to General Cable
during these difficult times."
    General Cable (NYSE:BGC), headquartered in Highland Heights,
Kentucky, is a leader in the development, design, manufacture,
marketing and distribution of copper, aluminum and fiber optic wire
and cable products for the energy, industrial, specialty and
communications markets. The Company offers competitive strengths in
such areas as breadth of product line, brand recognition, distribution
and logistics, sales and service and operating efficiency.
    Energy cables include low-, medium- and high-voltage power
distribution and power transmission products. The Industrial and
Specialty segment is comprised of application-specific cables for uses
such as electrical power generation (traditional fuels, alternative
and renewable sources, and distributed generation), the oil, gas and
petrochemical industries, mining, industrial automation, marine,
military and aerospace applications, power applications in the
telecommunications industry, and other key industrial segments.
Communications wire and cable products transmit low-voltage signals
for voice, data, video and control applications. Visit our website at
www.GeneralCable.com.
    Certain statements in this press release, including without
limitation, statements regarding future financial results and
performance, plans and objectives, capital expenditures and the
Company's or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions, are
forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from
those statements as a result of factors, risks and uncertainties over
which the Company has no control. Such factors include economic and
political consequences resulting from the September 2001 terrorist
attack and the war with Iraq, domestic and local country price
competition, particularly in certain segments of the power cable
market and other competitive pressures; general economic conditions,
particularly in construction; changes in customer purchasing patterns
in our business segments; the Company's ability to increase
manufacturing capacity and productivity; the Company's ability to
successfully complete and integrate acquisitions and divestitures; the
Company's ability to obtain credit facilities and changes to
facilities as market conditions warrant; the cost of raw materials,
including copper; the impact of foreign currency fluctuations; the
impact of technological changes; the Company's ability to achieve
productivity improvements; and other factors which are discussed in
the Company's Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on March 28, 2003, as well as periodic reports
filed with the Commission.

    CONTACT: General Cable Corporation
             Paul M. Montgomery, 859-572-8684