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Gloucestershire Business News

Construction faces 'unprecedented' supply shortages

The construction industry continues to face acute problems with the supply of essential materials.

The Construction Leadership Council says the shortages, particularly with imported products, are causing 'unprecedented challenges' which it expects to last into the second half of 2021.

Timber, roof tiles and some steel products are in short supply, as well as bagged cement.

Paints, sealants and chemical products, continue to be affected by raw material shortages, with paints also affected by a shortage of packaging, particularly metal cans.

Mark Carden, Director of CC Ground Investigations Ltd, based at Innsworth Technology Park, said they were definitely feeling the effects.

He said: "We have seen increases in prices from suppliers due to resin and raw material shortages, for plastic products that we install in our boreholes. We are also seeing the effects on lead in times for new vehicles and trucks, currently quoting early next year.

"But everything from cement to gravel is evidently in short supply and some builders merchants are rationing products."

In May, Simon Ford, CEO of Allstone and Speedy Skips, told Punchline Talks: "We have experienced a massive spike in demand and a relentless call from everybody for various building materials and skips, to the point where we ran out of some flooring sands, Type 1 cement and skips."

The CLC said that the situation with insulation boards has also become tighter and plasterboard has been subject to extended lead times. Some regions are also reporting delayed deliveries of bricks and blocks.

In a joint statement John Newcomb, CEO of the Builders Merchants Federation, and Peter Caplehorn, CEO of the Construction Products Association, co-chairs of the Construction Leadership Council's Product Availability working group, said: "Demand both in the UK and globally continues to dramatically outstrip supply and shows few signs of slowing during the seasonally busy summer months."

In the UK, record sales of building materials coupled with strong pre-orders and full pipelines of work are all putting enormous pressure on the supply chain which, in some sectors, has not fully recovered from the impact of Covid.

Electrical products have been affected by raw material shortages, particularly steel products and semi-conductors, since Autumn 2020.

These issues are now compounded by the shipping backlog in China's Pearl River Delta, with hundreds of container ships waiting for berths to become available. The Electrical Contractors Association and their Scottish counterpart, SELECT, are warning that the blockage already surpasses that of the Suez Canal earlier this year and is likely to lead to extended delays for electro-technical products.

The availability of hauliers is a particular issue raised within the group over the past months and it is clear that this is now a critical nationwide problem causing delays and impacting project programmes.

The UK has lost 15,000 European drivers this year due to Brexit, and 30,000 UK driver tests due to Covid, which has exacerbated the driver shortage.

Inevitably, all of this is feeding into price inflation, and the expectation is that high demand coupled with tight supply will mean higher prices throughout the year.

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