Dive Brief:

• An increase in the overall price of construction materials last month might be driven by cold weather and jumping natural gas prices, but it also might be signaling the end of unusual stability seen last year, Associated Builders and Contractors economist Anirban Basu said.
• The producer price index for construction materials rose 0.6% from December to January and stood 1.5% higher than January 2013. That number is the result of multiple changes though, like the 14.5% one-month increase in natural gas prices.
• Here are some price changes for specific materials. The first figure shows last month's change and the second displays the change from January last year:
  • Iron and steel, +1.9% and +3.9%.
  • Concrete products, +0.6% and +2.8%.
  • Prefabricated structural metal products, -0.4% and +0.1%.
  • Softwood lumber products, -0.6% and +2.8%.

Dive Insight:

Basu said that he does not think rising demand in the nonresidential construction sector drove the increases in rising categories. The economist appeared to hedge his bets, saying, "While economists work to determine if short-term atmospheric phenomen[a] or longer-term economic factors were the driving factors behind the volatility, it appears that weather played a dominate role in shaping price patterns in January."