A serious shortage of personnel in the construction materials market due to the refugee crisis and military service in Ukraine is hampering production and economic development, various industry associations have said.
In a feature report, news agency Interfax Ukraine spoke to heads of industry associations, who said the shortage has reached critical levels in the production of cement, concrete and many other materials that will be needed for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Military service "is one of the factors that can critically threaten the integrity of cement production processes and restrain the development of the economy as a whole," said Liudmyla Kripka, executive director of the Ukrcement manufacturers' association.
Kostiantyn Saliy, president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Construction Materials Manufacturers, said 50,000 of the 200,000 workers in the construction materials sector have already been mobilized.
The problem is further aggravated by Russian attacks on Ukraine's grid that make power supply unpredictable and raise the cost of production, as well as low demand due to the war and the unpredictability of the supply chain, said Oleh Syrotin, director of the All-Ukrainian Association of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Manufacturers.
