The prices paid by builders for a variety of steel products saw significant declines last month, according to new numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and crunched by the Associated General Contractors of America.
Those numbers show that the Producer Price Index for steel mill products was down by 6.6% in October compared with September. The decline from October of 2021 to October of this year was even more dramatic at 22.9%.
Copper and brass mill shapes, meanwhile, saw a 4.9% drop between September and October of this year, with an 11.5% drop year over year.
Aluminum mill shapes, similarly, were down 3.3% in the last month, and 9.3% between October 2021 and this most recent October.
In taking a larger look at Producer Price Index trends, the BLS noted that “prices for diesel fuel, fresh and dry vegetables, residential electric power, chicken eggs, and oil field and gas field machinery also advanced.”
Trend lines for other construction materials showed a 3.3% decline in lumber and plywood products, and a large 9.3% drop over October of 2021. Those numbers follow on the heels of double-digit increases in lumber and plywood products throughout most of 2021.
Despite the decline in the price of individual materials, the BLS numbers showed that the price contractors say they would bid on any given project was up by 3% from September to October of this year, and significantly up by 20.2% over October of 2021.
By Garry Boulard
