The construction industry has experienced a troubled recovery from the pandemic. Trade tariffs, congested logistics routes, labour shortages, and even climate change are hindering recovery in the construction sector. But the most obvious legacies of lockdown are the shortages of construction materials and unprecedented price hikes.
“The volatility in construction material prices experienced this year is unprecedented,” said Henry D’Esposito, JLL Research Manager, Construction in the executive summary to the firm’s Construction Outlook 2021 report.
“The increases in lumber and steel prices are by far the largest recorded through available government data back to 1949. For other commodities the records are somewhat more recent: aluminum prices have not increased this fast since 1995, plastic since 1976, copper since 2010. The inauspicious distinction this year is that all those records are being broken at the same time. Average material prices for a commercial project increased an astounding 23% in the 12 months prior to August 2021,” said D’Esposito.