Construction Materials Up 4.8%: Diesel and Metals Lead March Surge

AGC’s analysis of March producer price index data shows the largest one-month increase in construction materials costs in four years, driven by a near-record spike in diesel fuel prices and continued escalation in metals. The report covers nonresidential construction inputs specifically and places March’s move in the context of a broader 12-month trend that is now running at 4.8% annually, the steepest year-over-year gain since January 2023.

Four-point-eight percent annually sounds manageable until you map it against a bid you priced in Q4 2025 for work starting in Q3 2026. That gap is where the margin goes. Diesel running at near-record levels compounds the problem because it doesn’t just show up in fuel surcharges. It moves through every delivered material, every equipment-intensive scope, every concrete pour with a pump on site. Estimators who built escalation assumptions around 2% to 3% for 2026 are already behind. The question now is whether the subs who bid your next project are carrying realistic escalation or eating it quietly until they can’t.

Read the full story at AGC News.