Status: 06/24/2021 3:15 p.m.
Anyone who needs construction timber currently has to be patient – and dig deeper into their pockets than usual. In order to ease the situation, Minister of Economics Altmaier apparently wants to have more healthy spruce felled again.
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier wants to have more spruce felled again in view of the high prices for construction timber and ongoing delivery bottlenecks. To do this, he wants to lift the current logging limit for spruce wood as quickly as possible, the “Rheinische Post” quotes from a proposal paper from the minister. The paper is entitled “Suggested measures to improve the supply of wood products and other building materials and intermediate products.”
Altmaier therefore wants to strive for an agreement with the responsible ministries on the implementation of the proposals during this legislative period. “In the case of softwood sawn timber products, we are dealing with price increases averaging around one hundred percent within the one-year period,” the document says. Construction companies that had previously bought wood “just in time” for specific orders could no longer accept new orders despite the good economic situation. There are also delivery bottlenecks and price increases for other building materials.
Corona slows the timber trade
The reasons for these developments are complex, it is said. “Forest damage and bark beetle infestation reduce the amount of fresh wood and drastically increase the amount of damaged wood.” The sawmills had reached their capacity limits due to the amount of damaged wood. In addition, there are political factors that slow down international trade in wood as a raw material, as well as corona-related reductions in production and disruptions in the supply chains. “We must resolutely counter these critical developments affecting the construction industry, the building trade and the timber industry.”
The current limit on the felling of spruce wood continues until the end of September. In return, the forest owners receive tax advantages. Altmaier wants to continue this, even if the impact limit is to be lifted immediately. The federal government, states and municipalities should also use the permitted leeway for public contracts in order to “compensate as far as possible” for price increases in the procurement of necessary building materials, Altmaier writes in the paper.
A large part of the wood is exported
Another suggestion is that if a service is delayed because of the scarcity of raw materials, the public sector should forego contractual penalties. Damaged wood that has previously been sorted out and exported is also to be used in Germany in the future.
At the moment, the construction industry in particular is complaining about the lack of raw materials and the drastic prices for wood. In addition, a large part of the wood from Germany is exported abroad, especially to China, because demand there is currently particularly high.