BMBI gives an insight into the lead industry

Kyle Hazeldine, Sales and Marketing Manager is an invited member of The Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) panel of leading industry experts who represent their sector.

Each quarter Kyle reflects on the lead sector and below is his latest published insight into Q2 of 2022.

“For the first time since 2020, it is beginning to feel like we have returned to pre-pandemic trading levels, this was expected after the last two years the industry has experienced. UK Q2’s volume sales were down -3% on Q1 2022. This is being driven by several issues such as the aggressive rise in gas and electric, fuel and living costs.

The construction industry faces continuous cost inflation on many products, and this just adds to the mood of the nation which has affected consumers confidence and caused uncertainty. This has been felt in all sectors, and yet again I write this in circumstances that are just so unusual, and hopefully won’t become the norm.

However, in general construction has remained robust due to on-going projects that need to be completed and new-build sites remain active. We have seen an increase in other sectors such as Lead Ballast for boats and lead being used in the Healthcare sector for hospital projects. On a positive note, container prices have settled and even improved in some instances which has allowed us to extend our Export offering.

Although many of the economic factors have played against us, we continue to deliver our core values, specifically around sustainability, staff wellbeing and supporting future talent. The next few months we are committed to delivering on some exciting projects that will take 3-5 years to complete and will further demonstrate how we are invested in the future green economy.

Environmental issues are high on the agenda for the construction sector and many of our customers hold our sustainability values with high regard whilst still being cautious over rising costs.

Our advice is to stick to your core values, these unpredictable times will start to settle down and once the wider political issues have balanced it will help us all look into the future with much more optimism.”

To read the full report please visit https://www.bmbi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/BMBI-Q2-2022-Report-MASTER-1.pdf