The state association of Bavarian building guilds warns of further price increases and delivery bottlenecks for building materials as a result of the war in Ukraine. Bitumen for road construction and steel products were most affected, the association announced on Monday. According to this, around 30 percent of the structural steel used in Germany comes from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. “Our member companies are currently only receiving a few offers for steel mesh, beams, steel bars and sheets,” said Managing Director Andreas Demharter. A number of products can currently only be ordered based on daily availability.
The construction industry has long been groaning under material shortages and rising prices – also because the global economy has started out of the Corona low faster than expected. So now the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine are exacerbating the troubles. The resulting “unpredictable” increases made it difficult for companies to submit binding offers to customers, said Demharter. “The current destabilization of raw material costs affects almost every construction project.”