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Supply Issues and Shortages In The Construction Industry
- Thread starter albaPhenom
- Start date
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this is an issue we are seeing in multiple industries.
i find it strange as during the pandemic there were businesses that were making the most of the reduced outputs and manpower in buildings and having there maintenance done also usually have maintenance done during the summer months again because many employees are on holiday.
That said it seems some of the big companies didn't have this foresight and decided to postpone maintenance works, (a big reason for gas prices in the uk at present) and have now taken the decision to do the maintenance now pushing up prices at the peak of when people need them (gas for people heating their homes, windows with builders trying to get buildings water tight before winter etc etc)
we are heading for a massive recession very shortly with high inflation, and what seems like not much planning from the government / bank of england to keep a lid on it all.
What everyone here seems to be reporting is inflationary pressures...what the Govt. don't want is higher inflation when the Public Sector wage claims come in, nor when the old age pensions are calculated (November time?). Could this be why the 'official' inflation figure, the RPI, is showing a modest increase to 3%. I suspect that will jump significantly higher by Christmas, leading to the Bank of England raising interest rates by spring in an effort to rain in escalating house price inflation...so my advice would be that if you have the means to pay a lump off the mortgage do so, or at least try to get a fixed rate deal.
But why have we got ourselves into this inflationary position when it would appear logical that following a global pandemic we'd be seeing signs of recession looming? I asked myself the following question: if just about every country in the world borrowed money to pay for the pandemic, whether it be to fund direct healthcare costs or to pay people to stay at home or to plug the loss in tax revenues from paying people to do nothing, then who are they borrowing from? The answer was quite easy; they didn't. They (and we) had their central banks print the money, thus increasing the money supply, meaning that many individuals and companies had to pay more currency to achieve the same buying power. In other words the currencies were devalued. We are, in effect, paying the bill for Covid through inflation. Until the global manufacturing system recovers we will continue to see inflationary pressures on all commodities whether they be food, building materials, toys, cars, or whatever.
The odd thing is that one of the things we can do to alleviate these inflationary pressures is about the same thing we can do to save the planet; that is we should consume less. Less of everything...clothes, food, building materials, packaging, beer (sadly, yes), electricity, gas, and hydrocarbons in general. I find it both amusing and annoying that not only do I have to avoid schools around 9am and 3pm if I want to get to my jobs, but this week I had to add petrol stations to that list! Last Monday was a lovely sunny day darn sarf, yet with the fuel crisis in full swing there was clearly enough fuel sloshing around for the 4x4 brigade still to cause chaos at the local schools, despite 97% of the kids living less than a mile from each school.
This wasn't meant to be a rant. Sorry.
MM
But why have we got ourselves into this inflationary position when it would appear logical that following a global pandemic we'd be seeing signs of recession looming? I asked myself the following question: if just about every country in the world borrowed money to pay for the pandemic, whether it be to fund direct healthcare costs or to pay people to stay at home or to plug the loss in tax revenues from paying people to do nothing, then who are they borrowing from? The answer was quite easy; they didn't. They (and we) had their central banks print the money, thus increasing the money supply, meaning that many individuals and companies had to pay more currency to achieve the same buying power. In other words the currencies were devalued. We are, in effect, paying the bill for Covid through inflation. Until the global manufacturing system recovers we will continue to see inflationary pressures on all commodities whether they be food, building materials, toys, cars, or whatever.
The odd thing is that one of the things we can do to alleviate these inflationary pressures is about the same thing we can do to save the planet; that is we should consume less. Less of everything...clothes, food, building materials, packaging, beer (sadly, yes), electricity, gas, and hydrocarbons in general. I find it both amusing and annoying that not only do I have to avoid schools around 9am and 3pm if I want to get to my jobs, but this week I had to add petrol stations to that list! Last Monday was a lovely sunny day darn sarf, yet with the fuel crisis in full swing there was clearly enough fuel sloshing around for the 4x4 brigade still to cause chaos at the local schools, despite 97% of the kids living less than a mile from each school.
This wasn't meant to be a rant. Sorry.
MM
I went to the BM earlier today and still suffering from shock, 3x 4.8m of 2x1 treated batten and 1 length of 4x1 treated
for £33.20
for £33.20
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Agree with this completely.
If I'm honest I think too much help was offered during covid which has caused the current situation, many people had oodles of spare cash and boredom so spent an obscene ammount on online shopping and they decided to do up their houses and buy nice new to them cars, all this has caused everything to be in demand and the prices skyrocketed, had everyone tightened their purses during the pandemic we wouldn't be seeing what we are now.
D
Deleted member 174758
In view of the fact that glass mnufacturing requires copious amounts of gas, how likely is that?
I think the real issue was the pause in production meaning supply couldn't keep up with regular demand. As a result there are backlogs in all sorts of sectors with industry trying to meet both historic and new orders.
There was no additional help for most families either -- anybody furloughed still had the mortgage and bills to pay, so no oodles of spare cash. I was furloughed for six months and as I was nervous about potential future redundancy (which would eventually happen to 1,500 of us at Boots) I made sure I didn't go wappy spending.
there was many that did, not all companies were shutdown in the pandemic, and many used furlough as a cash cow.
However also as no one was out spending their money on holidays etc, people decided to remodel their homes and or buy new cars etc, Amazon made so much money in the pandemic due to people buying things they wouldnt normally have bought.
Much of it was boredam spending, but due to grants etc etc, people didnt spend their savings nor cut back on what they would normally spend (they diverted what they would normally spend to other areas).
not saying all did, but many did.
I didn't get any grants, I feel left out now! All I had was my regular wage like any other month. I probably saved about £60 a month in fuel not having to travel but that's it. I don't know anybody (as an employee) who got money from the government due to the pandemic; you either carried on working like most, or you were furloughed.
I wasn't furloughed because the company shut down either -- I was furloughed because there was a reduction in operations and eventually (and probably the real reason), a huge restructure which was mooted around the end of 2019.
I still believe the bigger reason there were shortages was because of the pause in production. Didn't most UK-wide construction shut down for a few weeks at the start? If they did, then so did the plant operators at quarries, builders yards, etc. etc. It only takes those few weeks to create a backlog of months, which then starts the domino effect.
There are other factors of course, but that to me has to be the catalyst.
I wasn't furloughed because the company shut down either -- I was furloughed because there was a reduction in operations and eventually (and probably the real reason), a huge restructure which was mooted around the end of 2019.
I still believe the bigger reason there were shortages was because of the pause in production. Didn't most UK-wide construction shut down for a few weeks at the start? If they did, then so did the plant operators at quarries, builders yards, etc. etc. It only takes those few weeks to create a backlog of months, which then starts the domino effect.
There are other factors of course, but that to me has to be the catalyst.
Yeah I'm not denying any of that.
But
The shortage of wood and construction materials was because all those on furlough were bored and decided to do up there houses, along with factories shutting down meant stock piles were depleted.
Construction workers were allowed to continue working so they were also depleting stock.
The chip shortage which has by far the greatest impact on many industries, was similar reasons, all stickers were depleted due to boredom purchases and everyone rising out to buy laptops and computers to work from home, and home schooling etc.
Had everyone's spending habits stayed the same as before the pandemic it's likely there wouldn't be such the backlog and price increases their inevitably was.
I didn't stop working throughout the pandemic, but we put people on furlough at full pay for 3 months, because people weren't going out, wasn't commuting and weren't going on their usual holidays, people found they had spare cash they would ordinarily have spent.
My original point being was that it wasn't just the fact factories shut down, but spending habits changed dramatically also
But
The shortage of wood and construction materials was because all those on furlough were bored and decided to do up there houses, along with factories shutting down meant stock piles were depleted.
Construction workers were allowed to continue working so they were also depleting stock.
The chip shortage which has by far the greatest impact on many industries, was similar reasons, all stickers were depleted due to boredom purchases and everyone rising out to buy laptops and computers to work from home, and home schooling etc.
Had everyone's spending habits stayed the same as before the pandemic it's likely there wouldn't be such the backlog and price increases their inevitably was.
I didn't stop working throughout the pandemic, but we put people on furlough at full pay for 3 months, because people weren't going out, wasn't commuting and weren't going on their usual holidays, people found they had spare cash they would ordinarily have spent.
My original point being was that it wasn't just the fact factories shut down, but spending habits changed dramatically also
D
Deleted member 174758
Most of the construction industry was told to shut down by the government who almost immediately did a U-turn and said we could keep going providing extremely strict guidelines were followed. For the guys working for the big house builders that came too late - some of them were already blowing their trumpets about how they'd furloughed their staff (almost all of them were management). The poor bloody subs just got sent home, bye-bye, and many of the management refused to work on site with them (that applies to at least 5 different main contractors I know of); and no site management means no subs. Quite a few of the trades, like the brickies and dry liners, shut down in March and April because the supply chains dried up really quickly - our brickies had 50k recycled bricks available on site, but couldn't buy sand for mortar. We got by because in late January we took about 10 loads of timber and built a buffer stock. The government, whilst telling us to shut, then stay open, hadn't told the materials suppliers to re-open as quickly. When they went back into production some firms, like the brick makers and gypsum processors had to go through expensive and time consuming chisel out out and reline processes with their kilns, etc before they could recommence production. Seems like BoJos morons didn't understand that some processes don't just switch on and off at the touch of a button...
Will be starting rear extension around March next year. Anyone who deals with builders merchants on a near daily basis, or who knows the supplying companies stock levels, care to give me an idea of whether to start ordering stuff now, or into the new year. I appreciate its maybe only your gut feeling, but if a few of you feel similar, it will be a good indication. Thanks
D
Deleted member 174758
No idea. The main contractor on the job I was on for two years plus went belly up a few weeks back (at least partly because of the hike in material prices), so I'm off doing mainly small odds and sods jobs until Christmas, plus taking some time off in between. The impression I got back in September was that material prices were beginning to come down and that the supply chain was getting better - but then sand, cement, gypsum, plasterboard, MDF, chipboard, glass, etc is produced in the UK to a great extent, although there seems to be less of a tendency for the big distributors and merchants to employ agency drivers. For stuff like some timber products it is a bit trickier because of the shortages of containers, increased shipping costs, etc for Pacific Rim stuff (like hardwood plywood) and even containerised European stuff (e.g. Finnish birch plywood). Because softwoods tend to come in from places like Riga as bulk cargo on coasters, there seem to have been less major disruptions due to a lack of agency drivers
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I've just had some tanalised for a pergola for a customer, prices were higher than they were in June.
Also priced up Osb3 18mm, was £24 a length in may, price on Friday was £54 per sheet and that's my trade price!
Also priced up Osb3 18mm, was £24 a length in may, price on Friday was £54 per sheet and that's my trade price!
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