Wood is scarce and expensive.
That creates turbulence.
The forest farmers earn good money, but craftsmen and sawmill owners have to pay top prices.
Dachau
- Wood is a versatile work and building material.
It is flexibly workable, durable and stable and enables countless applications in craft as well as in house construction.
But wood is currently in short supply and the price is skyrocketing.
While the sawmills still paid the forest farmers 70 euros per cubic meter in the end of the winter, the current “maximum prices” of 400 to 500 euros, according to the chairman of the forest farmers' association (WBV) Dachau, Leonhard Mösl.
This in turn is felt by the craftsmen who buy the wood from the saws - and ultimately also by those who want to build a house.
500 euros per cubic meter instead of 70 euros
Master carpenters Leonhard Lachner from Feldgeding and Werner Polt from Vierkirchen have been in the business for decades. There have always been fluctuations, they say. After times "in which our good wood product was sold off", says Lachner, the purchase has become expensive for his branch. But the two master craftsmen are far from being chased into the fenugreek.
Point one: Not only is wood expensive, that applies to all building materials, says Polt, who with his company mainly builds wooden houses. Point two: Across the board, all industries are currently being shaken. Point three: "The goods are available - with a correspondingly longer lead time," says Lachner, who mainly creates roof trusses for new buildings and carries out roof extensions and renovations. He and Polt expect relaxation by the end of the year at the latest. Point four: “You have to plan your construction sites well and over the long term. Then no construction site will stand still, ”says Lachner. And last but not least, point five: the ongoing construction boom.
He and Polt, however, are aware that not everything is in butter for a long time. Because: "The price level will remain high," suspects Lachner, who is also the head master of the Dachau-Fürstenfeldbruck carpenters' guild. "Quite a few building applications," adds Polt, "are withdrawn if, because of the high prices, the house costs 750,000 euros instead of 600,000 euros." .
The WBV does not blame Lachner for the high wood costs.
“The forest owners should write positive numbers again,” he says.
WBV boss Mösl, on the other hand, says: “Rising lumber prices and the lack of availability of wood on Bavarian construction sites are mainly due to the sharp rise in exports of sawmills abroad, especially the USA and China.” And WBV managing director Peter Göttler adds: “The The price spiral continues to turn rapidly. "
Federal Council slows down forest farmers
So golden times for Dachaus Holzmacher?
Yes and no.
Because there is still this regulation from Berlin.
At the end of March, the Federal Council approved a logging restriction under the Forest Damage Compensation Act, which has now come into force retrospectively.
As a result, the 1,500 forest owners in the Dachau region are “massively slowed down,” says Göttler.
This is particularly annoying in view of the fact that there is a lot of wood in the Dachau region.
The district of Dachau is next to the district of Erding the least forest in Bavaria.
But that only applies to the area, not to the number of trees that grow on it.
Calculated on the basis of solid meters per hectare, says Christian Widmann, forester and employee of the WBV office, Dachau is at the forefront throughout Bavaria, if not Germany.
What further worries the WBV people is the transport of huge quantities to distant countries.
The wood must first be brought to the coast and then brought across the sea by ship.
The wood also has to be fumigated to prevent harmful organisms from being exported, which further worsens the already lousy ecological balance of these transports, said Göttler, who can only say about the hustle and bustle on the world market: “It makes you dread! "
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Master carpenters Werner Polt (left) and Leonhard Lachner.
© Norbert H eBay
Sawmill owner Peter Krimmer is someone who is practically sitting between chairs.
His small family business in Markt Indersdorf buys from the forest owners in Dachau and Augsburg and sells to regional crafts.
When it comes to sawn timber, says Krimmer, the hustle and bustle on the markets no longer has anything to do with normal price increases.
"That almost borders on usury!" When it comes to price gouging, says Krimmer, he no longer plays along when it comes to selling to his customers.
"You still have to be able to look them in the eye."
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Empty warehouses: lumber is currently in short supply, and not just in the Krimmer sawmill in Indersdorf.
© Thomas Zimmerly
In order for it to stay that way, it would make sense for craftsmen, forest owners and owners of small sawmills to get together in the Dachau region, say the master craftsmen Lachner and Polt. You are thinking of a regional cooperative. The WBV would also be there. "The forest farmers' association is happy to promote local cycles and to strive for a close and sustainable partnership with craftsmen and local sawmills with the aim of a secure supply," said Mösl. “In my opinion, that would be a lengthy process,” says Lachner. He and Polt already give an example of why this is so: Small sawmills are not certified to deliver building materials approved by the building authorities, and certainly cannot deliver the necessary quantities. The big sawmills dominate the market. "In Germany there are only a few",so Lachner. And these great saws would ruthlessly exploit their market power, ”Mösl knows.