You get what you pay for - Building materials market in Serbia lacks respect of standards and stricter control

In order to improve the quality of building materials in Serbia, it is necessary to pass the Law on Building Products, then to accredit leboratories that will attest the quality and compliance with standards and, finally, to combat the black market where low-quality materials are traded. Market inspectors must do their job, and so do building commissions which have to request all required attestations for inspection. Investors, on the other hand, must state the performance bond expiry date and list the services to use to fix possible disadvantages and defects because there are so-called "hidden flaws" that can be noticed only after certain period of use of the building. This is a comment that Goran Rodic from the Serbian Chamber of Construction has given to eKapija on the current state of the Serbian building materials market, specifying the necessary steps to take to improve it.

His opinion is shared by Jovan Milivojevic, the sales and marketing director at Keramika Kanjiza, who points out that one can find goods of the widest range of quality in the domestic market today, clearly differentiated by the price, but buyers are often unable to recognize that. He says to eKapija that the situation in the Serbian building materials market has drastically changed since the abolishment of tariffs on imported goods, but to the detriment of domestic manufacturers.

Vladimir Sojic, the CEO of the construction company Galens from Novi Sad, is of a similar opinion. He notes that buyers mainly consider Chinese materials unacceptable, while those coming from Italy or Spain, the countries that are a synonym for quality, are everything but quality materials.

- The quality of materials in use in Serbia can be best explained by the saying, "You get what you pay for" - Sojic says in a talk with eKapija.

Attesting and quality control mandatory

Goran Rodic is explicit that all building materials must be attested by an accredited laboratory.

- A building inspection must thoroughly control construction sites and combat the illegal building, while every building site must have a supervisory authority and a construction log where every step taken must be noted down - says our interlocutor.

Rodic says that the production of building materials in Serbia is rather small in volume at the moment, adding that local manufacturers mainly produce bricks, roof tiles and sanitary fittings, while all other materials are imported as semi-finished products and then finished in Serbia.

Vladimir Sojic of Galens says that imported materials with suspicious attestations have proven in practice to be the most critical and can even put human lives in danger.

- As a socially responsible company, Galens does its best to implement as many locally produced materials as possible in their facilities. Unfortunately, some materials are simply not made in our country or are not a match to those imported - Sojic says and adds that plumbing and heating utilities and electrical installation cables are the most problematic materials. (Jovan Milivojevic)
Jovan Milivojevic of Keramika Kanjiza stresses that the consequences of current situation in the building materials market in Serbia are more than obvious - "a complete caving in of the construction industry which slowly comes to a point of no return as well as all other branches of production that rely on it."

He notes that Keramika Kanjiza has tried on several occasions to initiate a dialogue between manufacturers and competent ministries by clearly identifying all the problems and proposing solutions. However, that's where it all ended.
Marko Andrejic

Građevinska industrijska komora Srbije

Keramika Kanjiža d.o.o.

Galens d.o.o. Novi Sad

Law on Building Products

accredited laboratories

quality attestation

attestation of compliance with standards

shadow eceonomy

black market for building materials

market inspection

building inspection

performance bond expiry date

Goran Rodic

Serbian Chamber of Construction Industry

Jovan Milivojevic

Keramika Kanjiza

ceramic tiles market

Vladimir Sojic

Galens Novi Sad

importation of building materials to Serbia