Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

The carpenters have definitely stocked up on the supplies. They also smelled the lawsuit much earlier than all of us here. But as I said: I believe the shortage is largely self-inflicted. Germany has sufficient raw timber. The sawmills are the bottleneck. But they are usually continuing production. Those are already good signs. The USA and China will not pay any price either. The USA has traditionally used German wood for a long time. But transport costs were lower there as well. Now, with increased transport costs and rising raw material prices, it no longer makes sense to immediately start every construction project there with all might. So they also sometimes wait a few months. I assume (Note: crystal ball!) that everything will normalize in the second half of the year.

With wood, that can be fine.

For the rest of the economy, however, the second half of the year will be very exciting. Then the allocations of the steel and semiconductor markets will cause production shutdowns. Even standard plastics like PE, styrene, etc. seem to be dramatically scarce due to, for example, [Ethylenmangels].

In any case, an exciting time.

I am certainly glad that almost all materials were glued, installed, and screwed at our place. Last year, I experienced how our neighbors had a 2-month delay due to the corona-related delivery delay of the heat pump outdoor unit.

What use is it to the builders if the building materials are again readily available and affordable, but the technology with longer value chains is missing?

The carpenters definitely stocked up. They smelled the rat much earlier than all of us here.

So we, or rather our company suppliers in the automotive industry and everything related to contacts, generated a record turnover last month since the company was founded.. In October/November our boss still said all companies are starting to stockpile. Which will lead to increased demand for us.
Simply to be sure if a company is closed due to Corona.


In addition, in house construction there is the new subsidy, which does not benefit the homeowner but goes 1-to-1 directly to the next. But that has always been the case

According to a current article in Handwerksblatt, the first companies are going into short-time work! Despite full order books!!! Sick world.

This morning on our radio:
Spruce is currently being shipped to China and the USA for 75€, because the local sawmills only want to pay a maximum of 50€. Last year, spruce was still sold on the domestic market for 90€. Someone should try to understand that...

We are just about to get started. Our contractor has already prepared us for a higher price for the wood for the roof (9cbm KVH, 1cbm BSH). However, as soon as the spiral tightened, he also placed the order, which means our roof will at least be available. Of course, this is unfavorable for us, especially since with open tendering, you go to the bank with a fixed financial framework, but all in all, this framework will not be burdened with more than the 10% fluctuation. That is at least the current status. For this, there are binding contract awards. It is more problematic for construction companies that receive daily prices from building material dealers and can no longer offer price guarantees.

I came across an interesting article from the USA on the topic this morning. If anyone is interested, just enter Lumber mania is sweeping North America into the search engine of your choice.