Prices and waiting times are increasing: Craftsmen sound the alarm about material shortages

Due to supply bottlenecks for raw materials, customers have to wait longer and longer for a craftsman - and building is becoming more expensive. Handicraft President Hans Peter Wollseifer told the German Press Agency: “Not only is wood currently scarce and more expensive, but everything you need to build or renovate a house and much more. Electronic parts for our electronics technicians and cables and all of that are also missing. That is making our operations in these areas very difficult at the moment. ”Wollseifer warned of a slump in private housing construction.

"Because of the delivery bottlenecks, customers now have to wait longer for a craftsman, even if it varies from case to case," said Wollseifer.

“Our companies are doing their best right now to ensure that this does not have any effect on the customer, or only to a limited extent.

In the overall trade, the average order range is currently 8.8 weeks. ”The order range indicates how long the order backlog will last.

“In the construction and expansion sector, however, you currently have to reckon with at least ten and sometimes even up to 15 weeks before an order is started and processed,” added Wollseifer.

Some materials are three times as expensive

Above all, the construction and expansion sector is threatened with slipping into a crisis due to the scarcity of materials and the explosion in prices, said the President of the Central Association of German Crafts.

“We are still seeing significant bottlenecks in certain metals and plastics, and the factories are reporting to us that preliminary products such as screws are also slowly becoming scarce.” The supply of semiconductor products that are important for the electrical trade will continue to be problematic in the coming months.

“Building will be more expensive,” said Wollseifer.

He could not give an exact order of magnitude.

"But we have had material prices of 20 to 30 percent for the various materials in the last three to five months - up to tripling the material price for individual goods."

More housing subsidies?

In private residential construction, the current development threatens to act as a brake on economic recovery.

"Due to the price increases, buildings are becoming so expensive that it has an impact on the loans of building owners and there are increasing financing bottlenecks."

In addition, the higher construction prices meant that subsidy programs for the acquisition of residential property and for renovations only contribute a smaller proportion to the financing of the construction costs.

“That is why politicians should urgently follow up on this by increasing the funding amounts.

Otherwise there is a threat of a collapse in private residential construction and the renovation dynamics required by climate policy. "

In the case of existing contracts with private clients, price increases could not be fully passed on to customers, said Wollseifer.

“But with new contracts, this has to be taken into account in the calculation if the companies do not want to make a negative deal from the outset.

Since our companies can only procure the materials as expensively as they are offered, the result is that the goods and services then produced will be significantly more expensive for customers in the future. "

Jobs that are not worthwhile

Wollseifer described the current situation as absurd.

“Our companies have full order books, but in many areas it is not worthwhile to carry out the orders in view of the current purchase prices for material.

Because the companies know that they will then make a minus. "

Production capacities are being rebuilt, but that will take time. “You will get a grip on the problem in the long term, but only in the long term. We have held talks with the federal government that all new contracts should contain price escalation clauses in all new contracts so that the increased costs for which the company is not responsible can be passed on accordingly in the case of public contracts. And we have demanded that there should be as few contractual sanctions as possible in the event of delays, just because products that are to be installed are not available Craft businesses and municipalities, for example, are absorbed.

The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry also identified the scarcity of raw materials as a major problem. "Due to the economic stimulus programs in the United States and China, there is great demand, which has led to considerable price increases and a shortage of many raw materials," said DIHK President Peter Adrian.