The building materials suppliers have enough stock for repairs after the floods

Prague - Builders' merchants have sufficient materials in stock for potential repairs and renovations after the floods. According to them, supplies of materials should remain stable, although in some cases, the worsening traffic situation may complicate things. This was stated to ČTK by interviewed builders' merchants. How the floods will affect the demand for construction materials will only be clear once the consequences of the natural disaster are evaluated. Most of the warehouses and stores of the companies surveyed were not significantly affected by the floods, with the exception of Stavebnin DEK. Its stores were primarily impacted in the Jeseníky region and in the Moravian-Silesian region. For an absolutely necessary period, the company closed operations in Krnov, Jeseník, and Ostrava-Hrušov.

"Currently, there is a sufficient amount of building materials on the market, and our company is producing at 100 percent capacity, thus consistently supplying the market with products. In the event of enormous demand, the construction market from the years of the construction boom is prepared to meet such interest. Interest in products will vary depending on the extent of individual damages. Floods most often affect gardens, insulation, façades, but in many cases also interiors," said the managing director of Wienerberger, Petr Magda.

According to him, in some cases, repairing plaster and drying houses will be sufficient, while in worse cases, there could be interest in bricks or roof tiles and also piping systems in the case of damaged roads.

Similarly, another large Czech brick manufacturer, Heluz, is in the same situation as Wienerberger. The company's sales director, Petr Porubský, stated that in cases of disrupted building statics, the increase in demand for fired bricks will not be significant. And that will mostly come from investors who originally chose a different construction variant for their house and now have to start over. "However, we will need more time to launch additional production lines and increase production capacity," he added.

The commercial director of Isover, Jakub Richter, does not expect a significantly higher demand for construction materials either. According to him, a limiting factor will be the smaller number of workers in construction. According to Radek Vít, the director of Stavebnin DEK, construction materials will be needed for repairs and renovations after the floods. However, he suggests that projects already underway may be halted or slowed down, for which the company would otherwise supply in larger volumes than will be the case after the floods.

The Czech Republic has been suffering from extensive floods for the third day today. Thousands of households remain without electricity, several dozen railway lines are impassable, and some roads are closed. In the northeast of the country, there is still an extreme threat in several places. The Oder River, which drains water from northern Moravia, has reportedly already peaked according to hydrometeorologists. Rainfall is expected to subside, but it will still rain in southern Bohemia until Wednesday.