The main supplier of Savoyard joinery Pellicier no longer delivers pine or larch windows or doors until further notice. “Given the international situation”, softwoods are no longer available, it is explained in an email, on March 10. It will therefore be necessary to deal with the reserves of small manufacturers, then, when these are exhausted, to fall back on oak or exotic wood, reacts Magali Pellicier, whose husband directs the carpentry.
Three days later, the boss’ wife is having lunch with a salesperson from a tile factory in Modena, Italy. Factories stop production one after another. The ovens run on gas, the raw material comes from Ukraine. “My friend had never taken so many orders in Savoie. Back in Modena, he canceled everything. They will no longer be able to fulfill orders. » On Monday, a cooperative announces the end of solid parquet: everything was made in Ukraine. “It’s one a day, and it’s going to get worse and worse. Even with the Covid, we have never seen that. During lockdown? We only closed for a week. There, it’s scary. »
Snail operations
In fact, not a single trade, not a building or public works company that has not been affected by the Ukrainian conflict. The announcement of a discount of 15 cents at the pump had calmed things down a bit. “With my 5 vehicles, 20 cents increase, it was 5,000 euros in additional costs per month”, confirms Michaël Carré, at the head of a general contractor in Val-de-Marne. But everyone was waiting for the measures of the resilience plan. The simple request made by the government to public actors to revise the prices of contracts, and to everyone not to apply late payment penalties, was very disappointing. In Brittany, the oil depots of Brest and Lorient were still partly blocked by craftsmen while snail operations were launched on Friday March 18. In Occitania, craftsmen say they are ready to return to the roundabouts.
“For the carpentry, we were on a six to eight week lead time. Today, we oscillate between twenty-two and twenty-four weeks for windows” Pierre-Emmanuel Bossis, manager of Déclic Bois
Even the tree grates of the city of Paris, whose market is held by the Fonderies Dechaumont, 145 employees near Toulouse, are overtaken by the war. Each part, like the manhole covers, contains 10 to 20% new cast iron, explains the leader – seventh generation – of this family business. However, 70% of European needs came from Russia and Ukraine. There is still one or two months of stock in the ports of Antwerp, Bilbao and La Rochelle, but prices have risen 30% in one week. The reserves exhausted, it will be necessary to find a solution. Bringing the material from South Africa or Brazil is one of them. Replace it with scrap metal, another. “But it’s like cooking without butter or oil,” explains Jean-Baptiste Dechaumont. And the Chinese are already announcing a 20 to 25% increase in scrap metal for March.
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