"Existential threat": Roofers appeal to the Minister of Economic Affairs

An initiative by German roofers is warning of exploding building material prices that threaten their businesses. To draw attention to their precarious situation, they addressed an open letter to Economics Minister Katharina Reiche.

The Roofer's Club's Affordable Construction initiative is sounding the alarm. Exploding prices for building materials are threatening craft businesses, renovation projects, and affordable housing. The extremely high prices since March, driven by the war in the Middle East, are putting the roofing trade in a precarious financial situation.

Within just a few weeks, prices for bitumen products, insulation materials, flat roof systems, and other crude oil-dependent building materials have risen by up to 40 percent. At the same time, there have been short-term supply stoppages and shortened price guarantee periods, even though, according to market sources, sufficient stocks are available in many places.

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While industry and wholesalers can react quickly to changing commodity markets, the skilled trades operate with long-term order backlogs and fixed construction contracts. Many businesses are currently financing the additional costs from their own reserves, as such price increases are hardly feasible with private clients and housing associations. This jeopardizes the economic planning security of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Open Letter: Here you can find the full letter to the Minister . Without economic stability and political support, many businesses will not survive the coming months unscathed, explains Urs Nies of the Affordable Construction Initiative. In an open letter to Minister Katharina Reiche (CDU), the tradespeople appeal to her not to treat this development as a temporary market fluctuation, but rather to recognize it as a serious threat to key sectors of the German construction industry and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This is what the initiative demands of politicians:

• Immediate reintroduction of price adjustment clauses in public works contracts
• Special tax depreciation allowances and incentives for private building owners and renovation measures
• Critical review of conspicuous market price movements and supply restrictions
• Short-term industry dialogue between politics, industry, trade and crafts
• Measures to ensure material availability and market stability
• Stronger economic policy support for medium-sized construction and finishing trades

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