Construction Material Prices Rise, and Construction Sector Seeks Help

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 13/09/2020 at 09:30

Trabalhadores na construção civil

Be the first to react!

Recognized as Essential to Keep Going During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Construction Industry Continued Activities on Ongoing Projects and Advanced in Residential and Commercial Renovations

The emergency aid and remote work motivated renovations at home and in offices. What no one expected was that the construction materials sector would take advantage of this crisis phase faced by the country to raise prices almost universally, well above inflation. Most items saw increases of up to 10%, according to a survey conducted by the Brazilian Chamber of the Construction Industry (CBIC) among its member companies.

Statistics on the Construction Industry

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), cement became 10.67% more expensive this year and bricks, 16.86%. The increase has been felt since the beginning of the pandemic, but it accelerated in recent weeks.

Only in August, cement prices rose by 5.42% and bricks by 9.32%. The Brazilian Chamber of the Construction Industry (Cbic) estimates that about 90% of construction companies in the country are already having to pay more for these products and also for items such as steel, electrical cables, and concrete.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

In Times of Crisis, It’s Not the Time to Raise Construction Material Prices

The president of the Santa Catarina Federation of Industries Construction Industry Development Chamber (Fiesc), Paulo Obenaus, believes that in an unprecedented crisis like the current one, it is not the time to raise prices. In the State, the increases followed the national average, mostly up to 10%.

The businessman assesses that, faced with an inflation rate of only 0.10% in the first half and a projected 1.6% for the year, the prices of materials have nearly quintupled this inflationary variation.

– It is completely unreasonable at a moment when all of society has been called to unite for health, everyone helping, donating food baskets to the most needy, and companies reducing salaries and working hours, for one sector to raise prices much above inflation. It did not sit well – lamented Obenaus.

Construction Material Prices Rise, and Construction Sector Seeks Help

Recognized as Essential to Keep Going During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Construction Industry Continued Activities on Ongoing Projects and Advanced in Residential and Commercial Renovations

Read Also

Statistics on the Construction Industry

In Times of Crisis, It’s Not the Time to Raise Construction Material Prices

Mother and daughter build a 70 m² house with more than 8,000 discarded glass bottles and impress with their creativity; known as the Casa de Sal, the property is located on Itamaracá Island, in Pernambuco.

Workers were opening a new road connection near the Marginal Tietê when they found, in the underground of the construction site, remnants of locomotives, wagons, and boilers from the 19th century linked to the forgotten history of Lapa.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

China transforms desert-devastated area into the world’s largest artificial forest, planting trees for 60 years, blocking sand that reached Beijing, and creating a “green lung” of 92,000 hectares in a region once considered lost.

Greek island offers free housing for volunteers, but there’s a condition: you need to take care of rescued cats.

China has deployed snake-shaped robots to slide along power lines, where they have already inspected over 130 kilometers of cables using cameras and sensors to detect damaged wires, worn-out parts, and overheating.

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

Dissatisfied with seeing women outside the major breweries, a South African revives ancestral tradition, creates a brand with African ingredients, and trains new female brewmasters.

Why the letter password marked ATMs in Brazil: technology seemed complicated, became an extra layer of security, and is now losing ground to biometrics

Archaeologists find a face carved in stone in Kazakhstan and the discovery raises curious questions about ancient tombs, ancestors, and mysterious rituals of the Bronze Age.

Historic record of Brazil in the World Cup has just been broken and still brings an unwanted memory for Brazilians.

Without stakes, drills, or footings: a 3-story building in Taubaté draws attention for being built with styrofoam forms, a small team, six apartments, and five months of construction without a dumpster for debris.

Construction Material Prices Rise, and Construction Sector Seeks Help

Recognized as Essential to Keep Going During the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Construction Industry Continued Activities on Ongoing Projects and Advanced in Residential and Commercial Renovations

Read Also

Statistics on the Construction Industry

In Times of Crisis, It’s Not the Time to Raise Construction Material Prices

Mother and daughter build a 70 m² house with more than 8,000 discarded glass bottles and impress with their creativity; known as the Casa de Sal, the property is located on Itamaracá Island, in Pernambuco.

Workers were opening a new road connection near the Marginal Tietê when they found, in the underground of the construction site, remnants of locomotives, wagons, and boilers from the 19th century linked to the forgotten history of Lapa.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

China transforms desert-devastated area into the world’s largest artificial forest, planting trees for 60 years, blocking sand that reached Beijing, and creating a “green lung” of 92,000 hectares in a region once considered lost.

Greek island offers free housing for volunteers, but there’s a condition: you need to take care of rescued cats.

China has deployed snake-shaped robots to slide along power lines, where they have already inspected over 130 kilometers of cables using cameras and sensors to detect damaged wires, worn-out parts, and overheating.

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

Without stakes, drills, or footings: a 3-story building in Taubaté draws attention for being built with styrofoam forms, a small team, six apartments, and five months of construction without a dumpster for debris.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

An entire city in Alaska needs to be moved stone by stone due to ice sinking in a mega relocation project that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Cutting-edge engineering transforms an abandoned 88-meter-deep quarry into a luxury ‘earthscraper’ in China with submerged floors and geothermal energy.

Without mortar, without water, and without mess: young people create a dry flooring system that fits ceramic tiles like a puzzle, reduces construction time, and promises to revolutionize the way floors are installed in civil construction.

Dissatisfied with seeing women outside the major breweries, a South African revives ancestral tradition, creates a brand with African ingredients, and trains new female brewmasters.

Why the letter password marked ATMs in Brazil: technology seemed complicated, became an extra layer of security, and is now losing ground to biometrics

Archaeologists find a face carved in stone in Kazakhstan and the discovery raises curious questions about ancient tombs, ancestors, and mysterious rituals of the Bronze Age.

Historic record of Brazil in the World Cup has just been broken and still brings an unwanted memory for Brazilians.

Without stakes, drills, or footings: a 3-story building in Taubaté draws attention for being built with styrofoam forms, a small team, six apartments, and five months of construction without a dumpster for debris.