April Overview – Julie Bell-Barker
In the last two years we have seen supply and labour issues impact the construction industry, this was primarily due to the Global Pandemic and Brexit. As we learn to live and navigate with the tail wind of those constraints, we now have a new emerging challenge, the impact of the War in Ukraine and the sanctions on Russia.
Early market intelligence is starting to be released and it’s showing the impacts, both directly and indirectly, on construction materials. We are all aware of raising energy prices, but the shortage of raw natural resources (e.g. iron ore, neon, nickel etc) will also compound the availability, cost, and supply of key construction materials. Russia and Ukraine alone export nearly 45 million tons of steel with the EU being the largest importer of Russian steel, inevitably this will start to impact costs, particularly the M&E market.
So how can we navigate and respond to the challenges? It is my believe that construction projects have a better chance of weathering the storms ahead if there is cross collaboration, continued communication and trust within the project teams. It’s imperative we ensure a collective innovate approach to both the design and construction of projects to help mitigate the risks and challenges that lay ahead.
