Dive Brief:

• The latest figures in the government's Consumer Price Index show that construction materials, as a group, were 0.1% higher in June than they had been in May and were 1.4% ahead of June 2013.
• Prices stayed pretty much flat during last year, but the June number represents the fifth increase in the big-picture number in the six monthly reports so far this year.
• Anirban Basu, who watches the prices as chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors, said the first-half performance plus several large projects starting up in the U.S. and unexpected strong economic numbers from China may power costs higher for the rest of 2014.

Dive Insight:

Construction materials rose less than the government's overall figure for wholesale goods, both monthly and annually. Broken down, the overall increase was driven by six of the 11 categories in construction materials, but those did include softwood lumber, steel mill products and concrete.