Sharply increased material prices in the craft sector are increasingly having consequences for customers.
“Private customers wait longer for craftsmen and pay significantly more,” said craftsman president Hans Peter Wollseifer of the German press agency in Berlin.
In the construction trade, customers waited an average of 14 weeks and in the finishing trade 11 weeks.
This means that waiting times have increased again, for home builders, for example.
"I have never seen this price development for materials that has existed in the past few months in more than 40 years of being self-employed," said Wollseifer.
“Building will become more expensive in the future, not just because wages are rising, but because the prices of materials are rising.
Because it is already becoming apparent that prices - even if the material shortages relax - will not completely fall back to the pre-crisis level. "
The main reasons for rising material prices for wood, metals and insulation materials are more expensive raw materials due to a strong increase in demand from China and the USA as well as production problems for various goods.
"In the private sector you can always talk to the client and we meet with understanding," said the President of the Central Association of German Crafts. “In the municipal sector, in the public sector, this is less the case. There is relatively little accommodation. Very few have a price escalation clause, and current contracts that can only be fulfilled uneconomically are not adjusted. Many companies are now making lousy things because of this. "
Wollseifer described the economic situation in handicrafts as very different.
“Despite the price explosion, construction and expansion continued to develop positively.
On the other hand, of course, we have trades that suffer very badly, the body-related services, trade fair construction, precision mechanics, the automotive trades, "he said with a view to the restrictions in the fight against the corona pandemic.
"So far, the entire trade has largely mastered the challenges so well that we are still expecting an increase in sales this year, which will be between one and two percent," said Wollseifer.
“We said in October that it would be two percent.
That could become less now due to the corona impairment. "
The craftsman president called for tax relief for the companies. “Corporations are taxed less than partnerships on undistributed profits at the company level. That must be adjusted. "The problems have long been known, it is important to act.
“I don't want to do any industry bashing, but the Googles of this world, the Amazons of this world, they have not shown as much solidarity as we actually need, and how it would be justified if you look at how they use the infrastructure Make use of Germany and the good specialists, ”said Wollseifer.
“It is therefore right that the new government also wants to further advance global minimum taxation.
And that she wants to support efforts to reorganize international taxation laws. "