Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - The Hessian construction industry weakened in April 2022. As reported by the State Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Monday, sales in the Hessian construction industry fell by 3.1 percent compared to the same month last year. Accordingly, incoming orders fell by 1.3 percent compared to April 2021, and the number of employees decreased by 2.0 percent.
"There are many reasons for the negative development, which are working together and creating unfavorable framework conditions," explained Burkhard Siebert, general manager of the Hesse-Thuringia construction industry association. These included exploding building material prices and transport costs, inflation and rising interest rates, capacity bottlenecks and a shortage of skilled workers.
"As a result, rising construction costs are faced with dwindling financial strength for private and public clients," explained Siebert. "That and the great uncertainty of investors in the wake of the Ukraine war has led to investors putting their projects on hold."
The financing of private residential construction is becoming increasingly difficult, which is why there is a drop in orders in the sector of minus 6.5 percent in Hesse, said Siebert. "When it comes to road construction, it is foreseeable that the clients and especially the local authorities have already put the brakes on investments." Strong price increases for bitumen and asphalt have made the projects more expensive, which is going beyond the budgets of the municipalities.
