Shortage of Balsa Wood – Interview with Richard Kläger, RIK Balsa

Building materials, especially wood—the construction industry complains—have become harder to obtain and have also become more expensive, by up to 60 percent. Hansjörg Steiner, president of Holzbau Schweiz, cites several reasons for this: The boom in timber construction

boom in the U.S. and the Chinese market are hungry for wood products. This may also be having an impact on balsa wood. Richard Kläger can’t pinpoint the exact reasons either. He may have ordered the wood a little late. He has already paid for half of the shipment. For a long

there was radio silence from his supplier in Ecuador. The delivery has been promised, but it hasn’t even begun its five-week journey yet. Whether the Chinese are involved here as well, or whether the construction of wind turbines, the coronavirus, or other factors are preventing the delivery, is not

clear. Incidentally, the risk involved in such transactions is quite high. Kläger—and with him, the community of “balsa wood worms”—are currently in limbo and hoping for a swift end to our balsa crisis.

E. Giezendanner