Felix Pakleppa, General Manager of the Central Association of the German Construction Industry, criticizes material shortages and rising raw material prices following the figures recently presented by the Federal Statistical Office. These would continue to burden the construction industry. For example, the price of sawn softwood has risen by 111 percent compared with the previous year, the price of reinforcing steel in bars has risen by 82 percent, and the price of plastics has also increased by around 30 to 40 percent.
Felix Pakleppa finds the different price development of bitumen and asphalt mix striking. While bitumen prices have increased by more than 40 percent, asphalt mix prices have almost stagnated (+ 1.4 percent). He suspects that the reasons for this are that bitumen is only one component of the mix, high competition among mix plants, and a lack of orders in road construction.
In addition to the figures from the Federal Statistical Office, the CEO also refers to a snap survey conducted by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. In this survey, respondents from just under 3,000 German companies in Germany and abroad complained not only of supply bottlenecks due to transport problems at suppliers, but also of price increases for raw materials. But how do they intend to deal with the situation? In addition to passing on the price increases to customers, the companies surveyed are planning, among other things, to look for additional and new suppliers and to stock more.
Source: zdb.de/dihk.de/destatits.de
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