Commodities Watch
- Asphalt and Insulation
Material: Asphalt
Highlights
- After 11 consecutive monthly increases, totaling 8.7%, construction commodities price inflation fell by a small 0.1% in June.
- Asphalt prices rose 4.0% in June from May and now are up 6.3% since June 2010.
- Gypsum and Copper
Material: Gypsum
Highlights
- Construction commodities price inflation weakened with the month to month price change falling to 0.9% in May from 1.4% in April and 2.0% in March.
- Gypsum products showed significant prices increases—4.3%—in May; however, pricing is still down 0.9% from May 2010.
- Concrete and Plastic Resins
Material: Concrete
Highlights
- Pricing for ready mix concrete is down 0.3% from March and 0.3% from April 2010.
- While the pricing for concrete block and brick is down 0.2% from March, the index is up 0.1% since April 2010.
- Lumber and Steel
Material: Lumber
Highlights
- Construction commodities pricing rose once again in March. Up 2% overall from February’s close, the index has now risen 4% in the last three months and 6.8% over the last year. However, the lumber index as reported by Random Lengths Reporting has dropped for the past six consecutive weeks and the lumber futures market has limited down twice in the past two weeks suggesting that there is little demand in the market to hold prices at current levels.
- Hardwood lumber pricing is up 0.4% and softwood lumber is up 0.8% from February.
