Tariffs Push Construction Materials Prices Higher in November

Construction input prices increased 0.6% in November compared to the previous month, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors’ analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index data.

Overall construction input prices are 3.4% higher than one year ago, while nonresidential construction input prices are 3.8% higher. Prices increased in 2 of 3 energy categories last month. Natural gas and unprocessed energy materials prices were up 10.8% and 1.4%, respectively, while crude petroleum prices were down 1.1% in November.

“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.”