Steel, aluminum, and copper tariffs have climbed to 50% under Section 232 for covered metal products, while many derivative products face a 25% rate. Certain derivative products, including some fixed industrial machinery and power equipment, are subject to a temporarily reduced 15% rate. While qualifying capital equipment with at least 85% U.S.-sourced steel or aluminum can qualify for a 10% rate. The tariff regime continues to evolve, adding another layer of uncertainty for contractors pricing projects.
That volatility is showing up in material costs. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows aluminum mill shapes were up 40.5% year over year in July, while copper and brass mill shapes were up 18.4% and nonferrous wire and cable were up 12.2%. Steel mill products also remained elevated.
This means a bid priced a few months ago may no longer reflect what those materials actually cost by the time a project breaks ground. That gap is pushing contractors to consider price-escalation provisions and other ways of protecting bids against material-cost increases. The Bureau of Labor Statistics even provides guidance for contracts that use producer-price indexes to adjust for changes in material costs.
The problem is not that material costs are changing. It is that our estimating pace has not always been built to move with them.
A substitution decision starts with a takeoff question
When a contractor considers swapping a specified steel section, mechanical unit, or finish to protect a bid, the first thing they need is an accurate answer: how much of the original material is actually being used, and what would the replacement cost today. That starts with a takeoff and estimating question.
The substitution itself may still require design review, approval, availability checks, and other considerations. But without a reliable understanding of quantities and cost, the contractor cannot evaluate the financial impact of the change.
Manual takeoff and estimating workflows were already a capacity constraint before tariffs became a factor. With volatile material pricing, they also become an accuracy constraint.
An estimate built on a material rate from even a few weeks earlier can misstate the cost of a substitution meant to protect the bid in the first place.
Estimating speed determines whether a bid reflects reality
A 2026 survey by the Associated General Contractors of America and Sage found that 53% of contractors identified material costs as a major concern for the year. That is an industry-wide signal that the numbers underneath a bid are no longer something contractors can treat as settled once the takeoff is done.
The faster an estimate can be reproduced against updated material pricing, the more it protects the bid it is meant to support. A team relying on manual re-measurement and manual pricing lookups is, in practice, deciding how often it can afford to check its own numbers.
Under normal conditions, that tradeoff could have been somewhat manageable. With material prices fluctuating rapidly amid tariff and other market pressures, it is a bigger source of risk than it used to be.
This is where automated takeoffs change the calculation
Automated takeoff and estimating tools do not remove the underlying cost volatility. They change how quickly a contractor can respond.
This is the problem Beam AI, Attentive.ai's AI-based takeoff and estimating software, is built to address. Contractors using it can re-run a takeoff and update an estimate against revised material pricing in a fraction of the time a manual process takes. When a substitution is being considered to manage a tariff-related cost increase, that speed can mean the difference between a decision based on updated pricing and one based on a rate that was accurate weeks earlier.
The same capability that lets them bid more work also lets them revisit that work quickly when the assumptions behind a bid change.
Estimating has to keep pace with the market it is estimating
The tariff regime continues to evolve, and contractors will keep adjusting bids and specifications in response. That makes the speed and accuracy of estimating more important, not less.
The contractors managing this well are those who can re-price a bid fast enough that the number they are working from still reflects the market they are actually building in.
