Exemptions have been extended for some building product manufacturers and distributors in Auckland to keep operating.
The week-old building material exemptions had been due to expire at 5pm today. Photo: 123RF
But the industry is pushing for more as it says construction sites are grinding to a halt.
The week-old exemptions that cover 99 workers at eight companies supplying roofing steel, insulation or plasterboard and plaster, had been due to expire at 5pm today.
They will now run till next Friday or until pandemic Alert Levels change, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said.
The Building Industry Federation welcomes that, as 250 tonnes of insulation, and a lot of other material, has been distributed out of Auckland this week.
However, its chief executive Julien Leys met the Building Minister Poto Williams yesterday to press for more.
"We are running out, literally, of other things," Leys said.
He has asked the Minister for 500 workers to be allowed to restart, up from 100, and an additional six categories of product: Glass, structural flooring, concrete admixtures, glues and nails, exterior cladding, PVC piping and plumbing, and weatherproofing materials such as building wrap.
"I explained we had all the health and safety measures in place to comply with the Health Order."
There was no reason why the exemptions could not be expanded if Level 4 persisted, Leys said.
The Certified Builders Association says companies are hurting and need supplies freed up.
"I've had a number of calls from members right across the country saying there is no stock," said the association's chief executive Grant Florence.
"Warehouses particularly in the South Island are empty.
"In a lot of cases they've sort of ground to a halt."
Leys said the Minister had taken him up on a federation offer to draw up a paper in the next fortnight on how to improve the building product supply chain to cope better with the peculiar pressures of the pandemic.
"So when we come to this again, it's a much quicker process.
"We'll know what are the key products and we can that up and running quickly without having to shut everything down, which will make a huge difference."
Developers say some builders are coping better than others because they had stockpiled materials in anticipation of problems, particularly larger companies able to buy and hold stock, but this could come at the expense of others' projects.
Fletcher Building companies have exemptions to make insulation, plasterboard and roofing steel.
A spokesperson said the extension was welcome but Level 3 is what is needed.
"While restarting is a positive step forward, we are constrained by how much we can produce with skeleton staff so there is likely to be ongoing impacts on supply of materials albeit less than if we weren't operating at all.
"We like many other businesses need a return to level three to properly replenish stock levels."
The work of the federation, that represents suppliers, would "help New Zealand recover faster from this lockdown in the long run", they said.