FORT Fencing
Agricultural & Equine Fencing
FORT Customer Update - June 2025
18 June 2025
The sun is shining, and people are smiling, until it gets too hot! Landscapers and roofers are thanking the long, dry days, but probably not the baking sun… It does make a welcome change from the rain earlier in the month, and has lifted spirits as kids start to finish exams, holiday season starts in earnest and BBQs fire up.
The building industry is going through a very interesting phase. We know that there’s a massive underlying demand for new homes; that our existing housing stock is in relatively poor condition and insulation of existing homes is way behind where we need to be to achieve anything close to carbon neutrality. The government has a plan (wish?) to build 1.5 million homes before the next election. Business should be booming!
So, given all of the above, this news headline is rather interesting: Half of SME housebuilders ‘to be bust by next election’. The chaos around planning permission, the time it takes to grant, the massive taxes involved in moving and all of the extra pieces of legislation and conditions required before a builder can even consider putting a shovel in the ground make the risks of trying to develop a property too great for most builders.
Underneath this we have a skills shortage and a lack of young people entering the sector. The minimum wage increase and a range of other tax rises are reducing the ability for builders to make any money against the level of risk needed to tackle a project. All in all, it’s pretty tough out there.
Despite all of this, FORT has continued to grow and develop new product lines, while increasing its delivery range and service. We know that it’s crucial for you to be able to improve efficiency and that means FORT has to be on top of its game, every working day.
This should be the busy phase for building work, as the weather improves and we have long daylight hours. The big premise is that we need enough Clients wanting building work done ….. that’s the key and general reports seem to indicate that enquiry levels and general workloads have fallen back.
As we all know, this industry goes through phases and there are times when events coincide to reduce demand, before another surge appears. Only time will tell whether this is going to happen.
General Availability & Price Update
We mitigate price increases wherever possible, but we are seeing increases come through from our suppliers on a range of materials.
The FORT purchasing team are doing a great job of ensuring that we have stock on the ground and available, but as always, please forward-plan your requirement so that you aren’t caught short. The long-standing issues around flint blocks (very long lead time) and aircrete blocks (still on allocation from suppliers) continue, but we have plenty of stock of both.
Please wherever possible price ahead of time and build contingency for price increases into tenders for the future.
Here’s our round up of the usual key indicators; one key take away this month is inflation – the recent budget will have a further impact in the coming months:
Timber
This is a chart for the US market. As you can see, rates rose, but fell back significantly during the initial tariff saga, before rising again, showing an increase of around 20% in the last year. The European market remains dull but availability is tight. The talk around increased prices has now begun to turn into actual increases. Current rates are still unviable in the medium term and are bound to continue increasing. FORT are seeing increases coming through and expect that to continue.
Weather & Climate - After 3 months of below average rainfall, June has seen quite significant levels in the early part of the month, then scorching heat in the latter part, but overall the general trend is very manageable. Let’s try and make the most of it!
Currency - The £ has strengthened against the $ (around $1.35 = £1) and this affects many items bought in $. The Euro has stabilised (E1.18 = £1). The Swedish Krown (which affects timber) strengthened but has lost some of its gains (Kr 12.90 = £1) so all in all this helps UK purchasing power.
Oil Prices - These have such an impact on costs; When first preparing this update, oil was at $64 per barrel; then Israel attacked Iran ….. it jumped to $74! There’s a lot of volatility and the likely impact is for increased fuel costs.
Containers - Rates were very low but we’ve seen a significant rise in the last month or so. Demand has probably dropped but many containers will be in the wrong places. This affects goods from India (sandstone) and the Far East (plywood for example). It is an important indicator. As the US & China resolve their tariff war demand will come back and probably push up rates even further.
Steel - Steel prices had levelled then looked to be falling, but have steadied. A rough balance between supply and demand seems to still be in place, with no change in the last month.
Inflation/Interest Rates- This is the RPI figure and it fell to 2.7% in September, but has grown since then to around 3.5% and is currently stuck there; this is a concern. The pressure on inflation is keeping the Bank of England on its toes; the most likely way forward is slightly lower rates and we saw a 0.25% drop in early May. The economy is not firing up, so further rate falls are likely.
As always, please do not assume stock availability - check with the sales office!
Our reputation relies on word of mouth and testimonials from our valued customers, and as such we'd love for you to share reviews of your experiences with us on either Google, Facebook or TrustPilot if you have the time.
Thank you very much for your ongoing support of FORT!
Best regards,
Matt, Tim & Keith
The Directors