Building material prices have soared

Building material prices have soared over the last six months, along with many other products. The cost of raw materials such as timber, plastics and steel have particularly surged. Supply chain disruptions, due to the Covid-crisis, decreased the supply of building materials just as output remained resilient during the pandemic. This has resulted in shortages and price hikes.

Raw material prices for metals and timber have come down from recent peaks. However, this is not yet reflected in the producer prices because it takes some time before these make their way through the supply chain. Besides that, the data lags a bit, as July and August producer prices are not published until now and are probably already showing some flattening.