The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on a number of industries including Australian building and construction in both residential and commercial spaces.

Australian manufacturer of polystyrene building products Foamex has been affected in different ways depending on whether in Sydney or Melbourne.

Foamex Victoria general manager Justin Kelsey (pictured) says he witnessed a boom in the supply of products: “There’s plenty of demand and the severe lockdowns that have forced project managers and supervisors to restrict the number of workers on site has had a positive effect on suppliers like Foamex.

“Overall commercial construction is down to about 85 per cent of the pre-COVID level, but the restrictions on building sites have flushed out inefficiencies. Supervisors have had to be analytical about who is on-site at any one time, which has led them to being more efficient,” he says.

Justin adds that in the past, big projects saw workers almost tripping over one another but the pandemic has helped managers find ways to only have the ideal amount of people on site at any one time.

“That new level of efficiency has had a flow-on effect for suppliers like us because when we deliver our high-volume product on-site there is less waiting time,” he says.

Contrast that to Foamex in NSW, where Foamex’s NSW sales manager Bill Katz reports an entirely different situation.

“Initially there was more work to do because there was lots of confusion. Customers wanted to know how it would affect supply and we had to provide reassurance even though it was unclear to us too. We suffered a small decrease in supply for a number of weeks, but slowly built back up,” he says.

“Sales are now relatively consistent, but forecasting is impossible. Our commercial work has definitely been affected. Many customers have called to tell us that they’ve written-off the rest of this year and will be in touch in 2021.”

Both of the workers say that the residential market has continued in part to the government stimulus.

Justin says that a lot people walked away at the beginning of the pandemic but the stimulus brought some of them back with some large home builders experiencing record sales.

“However, we’re unsure how long this will last. We suspect we’re eating into the pipeline that existed pre-COVID so there could be a slow-down at some point. The lower immigration numbers into Australia as a result of the pandemic will likely have an impact on the number of new houses being built,” he adds.