This is probably just an oversight, linked to outdated standards and lists, which can be remedied. It is true that the president of Assolegno Angelo Marchetti (and with him many of his colleagues) must have jumped in the chair by scrolling through the list of the Ministry for Sustainable Infrastructures and Mobility (Mims), containing the 36 building materials (out of 56 considered) which have undergone an increase of more than 8% in the first six months of 2021 and for which compensation will be provided to companies that use them in public procurement.
In fact, although construction wood recorded increases of between 180% and 230% in 2021, this material does not appear in the list. Or rather: it is present in point 53 of the table drawn up by the Commission for the survey of the costs of materials, which will serve as the basis for the MIMS decree, but with the wording “undersized fir timber”, which puzzles entrepreneurs. “It is an unclear definition, which indicates only a part of the timber used in construction and moreover used for secondary structures”, explains Marchetti. An incorrect wording, too detailed, which could create problems for companies when they have to ask for compensation, with the risk that many of the companies in the sector involved in the construction sites in progress are excluded. According to the calculations of Assolegno-Federlegnoarredo, it is about 140 construction sites. «If the decree of the ministry that will regulate the list of products subject to compensation does not include wood, the impact could translate into 60 million losses up to 1,800 redundancies – explains Marchetti -. If a solution is not found as soon as possible, by clearly framing the situation of construction timber within the decree, it could trigger a dangerous domino effect on the entire construction sector ». The request for allowance is apparently simple: replace the wording used with the more general and correct one of “structural timber” or “construction timber”. Marchetti says he is confident of obtaining this change, but the problem is the timing: «We have already started a dialogue with the institutions. The important thing is to hurry up, because the situation for companies is already very difficult ».
The losses could be even larger than those estimated, if we consider that the effects of this “oversight” could concern all the works in which the use of wood is envisaged, such as the construction of a roof. «Also in this case the contracting team will have real difficulties in accessing the compensation fund provided by the government – explains Marchetti -. Given the increases that construction wood has undergone in the last year, the negative consequences for both the supply chain and the community in terms of unfinished services and infrastructures are easy to understand ».
Not only that: precisely in a historical phase in which sustainability is the primary objective of Europe and the pivot of the policies of the national government, it would be paradoxical, says Marchetti, “that structural wood was scarcely considered precisely the sustainable material par excellence. , which more than any other is able to help the construction sector in the process of ecological transition that leads to considering the construction sector no longer a source of CO2 emissions but a possible storage basin of the same ».