Construction industry fears bankruptcies
Representatives of the construction sector want solutions that will compensate them for the drastic jump in material prices. If they don’t get help, the sector will face a wave of bankruptcies.
A big problem for the construction industry is a drastic jump in prices of materials, especially steel and asphalt. In the second week of the war steel elements have increased in price by several dozen percent. Moreover, steel is difficult to buy because our steel mills have suspended deliveries. The reason is the war and the sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus.
The construction industry also has to deal with an outflow of workers from the Ukraine.
Damian Kaźmierczak, chief economist at the Polish Association of Construction Industry Employers (PZPB), says that in connection with this there is a high risk of a wave of bankruptcies of construction companies. It is therefore necessary to take decisive steps to save the industry. There are various proposals. The industry is demanding, among other things, cancellation of road construction tenders that have not yet been decided. Then the possibility to terminate contracts where the valorisation threshold has been exceeded. Other proposals include the elimination of the valorisation limit, postponement of the deadline for completion of works by six months.
There was also a proposal to create a special law. According to Tomasz Żuchowski, the head of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways, liquidation of the valorisation threshold would result in even higher prices. He assured that the construction industry would not be left without help. However, he did not present specific solutions.
