CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES SUSPEND WORK DUE TO THE PRICES OF STEEL AND REINFORCEMENT IRON

Due to a boom in the prices of steel and reinforcing iron, construction companies in our country are shutting down, warn the regional office of the Bulgarian Construction Chamber in Stara Zagora.

Since the beginning of March, the sale of steel and reinforcing iron has been suspended due to the war in Ukraine - the main building materials, the shortage of which affects the construction industry. Since the beginning of the war, the price of a ton of construction iron has jumped from BGN 1450 to BGN 2100, and there is already a serious shortage on the market.

Plamen Mihalev, chairman of the regional office of the Construction Chamber in Stara Zagora, is alarmed about this. According to him, brick producers are reducing sales to a minimum because they do not know how gas and electricity prices will affect them. And investors are shutting down sites due to a shortage of construction materials.

Bankruptcies of companies are not ruled out, predicts the chairman of the regional Construction Chamber.

The main suppliers are from Ukraine and Russia, the last ship stopped at a Bulgarian port two weeks ago. There is panic in the industry, Mihalev commented to BTA. He added that other suppliers from Turkey and Greece were also suspending exports on the grounds that the quota had been exhausted.

The stocks in the Bulgarian warehouses are insufficient, Plamen Mihalev clarifies. And he gives an example with his company, which has a warehouse but no longer sells.

An extended meeting of the Board of Directors of the Chamber is forthcoming, at which urgent solutions to the crisis in the industry will be sought. It is expected to take place next week.