PUTRAJAYA: The impact of rising building material costs on the local construction sector is being assessed, says Deputy Works Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan.
He said the assessment is being done by the Construction Industry Development Board in collaboration with the Statistics Department. He said the collaboration will enable the Works Ministry to obtain more accurate data on percentage increases using scientifically based inflation calculation methods.
Ahmad said the assessment must be carried out in detail by examining the components within a construction project.
“For example, in a building project involving about 50 items, we need to identify how many items are truly affected and to what extent the impact is,” he said after visiting the Setia Perdana Activity Centre project site at the Prime Minister’s Department here.
He said the impact of cost increases varies by project type, with road construction and maintenance more affected than building projects.
He said rising diesel prices have placed significant pressure on operational costs for road contractors due to the use of heavy machinery such as lorries, bulldozers and rollers that rely on the fuel.
“For building construction projects, the impact of diesel price increases is more limited as fuel usage is not as high,” he said, Bernama reported.
