Beyond the petrol pump: The real cost of distant wars for our Aussie tradies

So says electrician facing challenges that stem from the global fuel crisis.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic prices in Australia have surged by more than 30 per cent as the Strait of Hormuz crisis continues to choke global petroleum and gas supplies.

As PVC piping is made from 43 per cent ethylene (petroleum or natural gas), the war in Iran has been hurting Australian tradespeople.

After decades in the trade, Eastman Electrical part-owner Brad Eastman, from the NSW Bega Valley, said he was facing a supply chain reality that left him deeply unsettled.

"If I want to go down to Bega and buy a piece of very common orange 40mm conduit, I can't buy it," Mr Eastman told Bega District News.

"If I ask when they can get it, their answer is the companies they buy it from won't accept purchase orders.

"It's pretty significant. The local suppliers do have some stock remaining, which they haven't been saying too much because I assume they don't want to trigger a panic-buying scenario."

In an era where a house costs 47 per cent more to build than it did before the pandemic, contractors find themselves trapped between fixed-price contracts and overnight price hikes they never saw coming

"We got a letter sent through about two weeks ago saying conduit is going up by 28.5 per cent with basically a week's notice," Mr Eastman said.

"One of the big producers, which I believe is in Taiwan, where [Australia] gets most of its PVC to make conduit, have had a force majeure: a contractual term meaning suspending agreements for the foreseeable future."

Australia imports more than 90 per cent of its plastics (resins and finished packaging), which means the country is highly vulnerable to global disruptions, resulting in significant price shocks.

Mr Eastman noted that while several of his long-term contracts remained unaffected for now, the primary concern was the inability to progress beyond specific project milestones.

"The cost is up, but it's not the cost that's concerning," he said.

"It's the concern of what are we going to do if we can't get it.

"There are some alternatives, but they're not as well known, readily available or well used.

"If we need conduit to do a particular part of an electrical job, we can't do anything.

"That's the fear for us. The biggest fear is that nobody can tell us if and when supply will continue.

"It's pretty much a problem across the board with anything plastic related and it's affecting every electrician, plumber, and building suppliers."

Mr Eastman also noted that fuel increases had also added a burden as "diesel is costing us $1000 more per week and that's just cars and vans".

He said if the Strait of Hormuz opened again soon, there would still be considerable wait times.

"They would need to get oil from there to Taiwan, then they need to refine it, get the refined product to Australia, make the plastic product, and then send it to us," Mr Eastman said.

"Nobody can tell us what's going on."

Mr Eastman said the impact on residential jobs will be less severe because the material requirements were significantly lower.

Whereas a commercial site might order three truckloads of conduit, a residential site might only need three pieces.

"There are some other conduit manufacturers in Australia that make it from different products, but they're not at that industrial scale where they can supply the whole country," he said.

While price rises were factored into several Far South Coast projects the company had submitted tenders for, Mr Eastman said "nobody can factor in a 30 per cent rise in one hit".

Mr Eastman noted that while PVC had taken a hit, there was a recent incident in mid-2025 that had put further strain on the trades industry.

"Another problem that is not well known is one of the world's biggest copper mines in Indonesia partially collapsed a few years ago," he said.

"It has driven copper prices through the roof by increases of 30 and 100 per cent.

"So, with a project I priced a year ago and start today, I'll still be working there three years down the track based on pricing from years ago.

"Some of the cables I bought for the Bega Showground I priced at $50 a metre and I paid $95 a metre. I was losing money. I had mark-up, but was losing $20 a metre."

In a recent radio interview, Master Builders NSW executive director Matthew Pollock said current supply chain disruptions and the business collapses made it similar to the post-pandemic period.

However, there were also key differences.

"We're not seeing the sort of uptick in insolvencies that we saw post-COVID, and that's a very welcome thing," Mr Pollock said.

"To those home owners or prospective home owners out there, you shouldn't be worried about your builder going under."

Mr Pollock explained that fixed-price contracts were putting pressure on builders as increases in the price of material or the cost of getting material to site would need to be "absorbed" by the builders themselves.

In the most recent statistics, 3596 construction companies went insolvent in Australia in 2025, marking a record high, driven by high material costs, labour shortages, and fixed-price contracts.

Mr Eastman said some of them were "absolutely trading insolvent or malpractice", but noted how a large percentage of businesses that went under did so because of rising costs.

"We still haven't recovered from COVID-19. We were caught up directly with a bankruptcy and lost a significant amount of money," he said.

"It's very hard to manage."