Construction materials rise again

Rapidly rising world market prices for cement, metal, oil and natural gas drove the prices of construction materials delivered to job sites up 1.2 percent in March 2007 and 1.6 percent year to date, a nearly double-digit annual pace, according to Reed Construction Data's latest report. This inflation pressure was aggravated by very tight supply conditions for materials used in the booming non-residential building and heavy engineering construction markets. A few more months of high inflation should be expected before slowing economic growth, both in the U.S. and abroad, relieves the strain on capacity in auction markets for commodities and leads to significantly lower materials price inflation later in the year. According to the latest report, construction aggregates were up 0.4 percent over the previous month, 4.7 percent versus three months ago, 9.5 percent over a year ago and a whopping 26.5 percent over three years ago. Your comment?