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According to Max Shifman, president of the Australian Institute of Urban Development, the impact on the global timber supply caused by the Russia-Ukraine incident has led to problems such as higher fuel prices, increased transportation costs and shortages of materials such as timber, which have caused the Australian construction industry to fall into crisis.

shortage of construction materials

Australia imports from Russia and Belarus for 40%-50% of construction timber such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and engineered wood products (EWP). However, as the Russia-Ukraine affair continues to stalemate, the reliance on Russian imports will lead to shortages of major construction timber products in Australia in the coming months.

For the Australian construction industry, there are severe shortages across the supply chain. It's not just the lack of wood products. A range of building materials, from concrete pipes to drywall to aluminum, are in short supply.

Supply chain shortages have been going on in Australia for some time. Due to insufficient supply, the local primary aluminum price has risen by about 40%, and some construction materials need to be ordered and paid in advance several months in advance, otherwise the entire construction project is likely to fail due to the lack of one of the building materials.

Shortages will be the new normal

Lumber supply shortages are a global problem these days. With the economic restrictions imposed by EU countries and Russia, the resulting increase in fuel, transportation and other costs has led to increased inflationary pressures in the global economy.

At present, the shortage of timber products in Australia is imminent, which will also exacerbate the tightening of the local construction industry supply chain. At the same time, Australian house prices have been pushed up due to rising costs due to supply shortages.

At present, the above problems will not be solved in the short term, and are likely to become the new normal in the next few years.