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Roofers work against the backdrop of the tower domes of the Frauenkirche in Munich
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
Crafts are suffering and need help, warns Craft President Hans Peter Wollseifer.
"Companies and businesses in the trades are very unsettled by the overall situation, especially by the shortage of materials and exorbitant price increases, by dramatic increases in energy prices and inflation," he says.
Wollseifer calls on the federal government to provide relief.
Two months ago, almost half of the craft businesses reported at least a doubling of energy costs.
"Now there will probably be a lot more." These costs could not be passed on to customers in full - especially not in the case of orders from states and municipalities.
Many orders can therefore “only be fulfilled as negative business, which no company can sustain in the long run.”
Wollseifer complained that while the federal government prescribes price escalation clauses for public buildings, this important signal for the companies was obviously not received by the states and municipalities.
Such clauses in the contracts stipulate that the client assumes increasing prices in whole or in part until the execution of his order.
"Our companies tell us that only about ten percent of the municipalities are willing to build price escalation clauses into current or new contracts," complains Wollseifer.
Therefore, many companies do not like to participate in public tenders.
However, it cannot be in the interests of the municipalities and states that “our companies conclude contracts for orders that are likely to be in deficit”.
They would not survive this with long-running orders.
It could not be desirable that many local companies went bankrupt.
"Then there are no taxpayers, then there is no service for the municipality." Recommendations for action by the federal government are necessary.
In addition, there are more and more cancellations and order postponements.
Companies in civil engineering, for example, even struggled with complete production failures because there was a lack of steel and bitumen, for example.
There are major problems in the automotive trade because spare parts are not available.
This brings many companies to the brink of existence.
The federal government must support the affected craft businesses "so that they can get through this difficult time".
The state cannot cushion all risks, but small and medium-sized businesses should not be left out of support programs.
“We have an imbalance there, especially when it comes to energy costs,” emphasized Wollseifer.
»It is unacceptable that you only focus on whether a company is internationally oriented and is in international competition.«
kig/dpa-AFX
