Experts called the presence of counterfeit goods on the building materials market a federal problem

The problem of counterfeit products in the construction market has reached the federal scale. In particular, the share of counterfeits in the segment of construction materials has increased by 4 percentage points, reaching an average of 30% of the total market. This was reported by experts interviewed by Izvestia.

Specialists emphasize that the use of such low-quality materials can lead to a decrease in the strength of buildings, their collapse and shortened service life.

The most vulnerable segment for counterfeits in the market of building materials are bulk materials, including cement, gypsum, lime and various dry mixes. Over the past year, the share of counterfeit dry mixes has increased by 10% to 30-40%. The share of counterfeit cement has increased by 5% to 25%.

The individual housing construction (IHC) sector is particularly vulnerable. In the first half of 2024, housing commissioning in Russia amounted to 53.4 million square meters, of which more than 37.9 million square meters were for housing construction. According to the forecasts of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, by 2030, the urban planning potential for the construction of private houses may reach 75 thousand hectares, which will make it possible to build more than 1.6 million houses of housing and communal housing.

"Most buyers of building materials for housing and communal housing are ordinary citizens who buy materials on their own and often choose fakes to save money, unaware of the risks," the industry emphasized.

In 2022, as reported by the media, the illegal turnover of cement amounted to 21% of total consumption, leading to damage to the industry of 83.8 billion rubles. With the increasing share of counterfeit, the losses exceeded 99 billion rubles.

According to market participants, unscrupulous manufacturers use various fraudulent schemes to mislead buyers about the composition and quality of products. Thus, on the market one can meet bags with unknown composition, which is indicated on the labeling as "supermix", "grade 400", etc. without mentioning the word "cement", etc. According to experts, the only way to prevent counterfeiting is to strengthen government control, as well as to switch to the use of modern polymer packaging, which cannot be counterfeited in artisanal conditions.

To combat counterfeiting, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to introduce mandatory labeling of construction materials from March 1, 2025. Currently there is a voluntary experiment on labeling of certain types of construction materials. Experts claim that this measure will help reduce financial losses and improve the safety and quality of houses under construction.