The price of diesel fuel has risen by more than 74% between April of 2025 and last month, according to new data just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The price, in fact, as measured by the Bureau’s producer price index, was up by 14% just between March and April of this year.
Overall, reports the BLS, input prices for all non-residential construction materials combined saw a 6.6% jump in April over the same month last year, comprising the most significant increase since December of 2022.
Other increased item prices include liquid asphalt, seeing a producer price index jump of 41% from March to April of this year, and 18% over where things stood in April of 2025.
The numbers were equally daunting when it came to aluminum mill shapes, which saw a 37% year-to-year increase in April, and copper and brass, up by 21% during the same time frame.
The producer price index for steel mill products also increased in April, seeing a 13% jump in the last 12 month.
Such input prices, notes the Data Digest, a weekly publication put together by the Associated General Contractors of America, have been “driven by tariffs as well as the Middle East conflict.”
Pressures from the war, notes the Wall Street Journal, are additionally seeing U.S. refiners “cranking out diesel to the hilt.”
In an analysis published last month, Forbes noted that supplies of diesel are almost always more limited than gasoline supplies, leaving “little buffer when supply is disrupted” as it has been this spring.
May 18, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
