“The big increase in costs is yet to come”: the construction industry fears massive slumps

Dusseldorf “There’s always construction going on,” says a proverb in the construction industry. In the past two years, that seemed to be truer than ever. While the corona pandemic caused massive slumps in large parts of the global economy, the construction industry quickly proved to be a key pillar of the economic recovery after a brief slump.

Now, however, the tide could turn again – and this time possibly for a longer period of time: The global material bottlenecks are getting worse, the prices for raw materials are rising almost every week, construction costs are becoming unpredictable, and orders are collapsing. And the spirit of optimism in recent months is increasingly giving way to gloomy prospects and a lack of clarity in the construction industry. Is there a threat of a lasting slowdown in the industry boom that recently seemed almost unstoppable?