Andreas Nierhoff from Holz Rubarth. There is very little wood in the 1000 square meter square, which was otherwise always well filled.
© Thomas Nitsche
Supply bottlenecks and rising prices for wood and building materials are causing more and more headaches for local suppliers and construction companies. The situation has been very tense for a few weeks.
Werl – Andreas Nierhoff, Managing Director of Holz Rubarth, reports that the great demand for wood in China and the USA are causing supply bottlenecks in Germany. “They pay more for the wood and thus get the contract,” says the Werler entrepreneur. The carpenter Clemens Gerbens from Werler knows that Germany cannot supply three markets at the same time.
The construction industry is now suffering from this. The Demand from China and the USA is so huge that building materials are becoming scarce in this country. As a result, not only are delivery times longer, prices are skyrocketing. Carpenter Clemens Gerbens reckons that prices will be three times as high by summer as they were a year ago. The wood business is extremely hard hit.
Holzhandlung Rubarth is a traditional company, and managing director Andreas Nierhoff has been with the company for over 30 years. But: “I’ve never experienced anything like this in all of the years I’ve been here,” he says. “Everything that is needed as construction timber is in short supply.” In addition to the problems with the markets in China and the USA, he also sees the corona pandemic as the cause of the shortage. “Many have not been able to go on vacation for more than a year, and now people are making their own homes beautiful.” From his professional experience, he knows that the money saved is now being put into their own four walls.
The inquiries at Holz Rubarth never end. “In one day we had 150 calls and numerous email inquiries. We can’t answer that much with three people, ”reports the managing director. “Even with inquiries for offers, we can’t keep up. That can take three weeks. ”He recently got a call from Hagen that the customer had his roof open because of on-roof insulation and urgently needed wood. Now he tried to get to the building material quickly in the entire area. “We were the 23rd supplier he called. Its earliest delivery times were August and September. But we couldn’t help him either, ”said Nierhoff.
As he describes, normal delivery times used to be four to five weeks. Today he is assuming ten weeks for the order. The prices in the market have also risen. “In some cases we are now paying almost 60 percent more,” says Werler. He knows from reports from colleagues in Bavaria that companies have registered short-time work even though the order books are full. All of this only because there is a lack of material on the building site.
Clemens Gerbens does not have this problem. “I do a lot of renovations, and I don’t need that much wood.” But two new buildings are due again soon. “I ordered the wood five weeks ago, although I won’t need it for just under two months,” says the carpenter. When he queries the suppliers, he only ever hears that nothing is in stock. “The builders now have to expect higher prices,” he says. He explains that the building tradesmen’s offers no longer give precise prices. “The wages are listed, and for building materials, reference is made to the current price. This means that companies keep their doors open to price increases, ”explains Gerbens. He thinks it would be bad if things got to the point here that companies had to close due to a lack of building materials.
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