Construction Input Prices Rise in November Amid Market Uncertainty

WASHINGTON, DC — Construction input prices rose 0.6% in November—matching the monthly increase for nonresidential construction inputs—according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of newly released US Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index data.

Compared to November 2024, overall construction input prices are up 3.4%, with nonresidential construction inputs rising 3.8% year over year. Energy costs were mixed during the month, as natural gas prices jumped 10.8% and unprocessed energy materials increased 1.4%, while crude petroleum prices declined 1.1%.

Difficult to Predict Where Prices Will Go

“Construction input prices surged in November and are now up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “While that’s a relatively modest annual increase, it’s also the largest since January 2023 and the trend offers plenty of cause for concern. Many tariff-affected materials, like derivative metal products and switchgear equipment, have experienced considerable price escalation in 2025. Prices for aluminum mill shapes and primary and secondary nonferrous metals are both up more than 25% over the past year.

“Unfortunately, it is impossible to know exactly how the cost of tariffs will be distributed throughout the supply chain, and that makes it exceptionally difficult to know how construction input prices will behave in 2026,” said Basu. “Despite this uncertainty, contractors are on net optimistic that their profit margins will expand during the first half of the year, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index, albeit slightly less optimistic than they were at the same time last year.”

Visit abc.org/economics for the Construction Backlog Indicator and Construction Confidence Index, plus analysis of spending, employment, job openings and the Producer Price Index.