Buyers are front-running the calendar. A July 24 tariff deadline is pushing construction procurement teams to lock in steel, copper, and equipment orders before the rules change, because what replaces the current duties looks messier than what’s there now.
The mechanics: the temporary 10% Section 122 tariffs expire that day. In their place comes a set of country-specific Section 301 duties that raise or lower a given material’s cost depending entirely on where it’s sourced. For a contractor with a fixed-price backlog, that’s not a spreadsheet tweak. It’s a sourcing decision that has to be made blind, weeks ahead of knowing the final numbers.
Prices were already climbing
This lands on a market that’s been heating up for months. The producer price index for construction materials hit 354.9 in March, a record, up 6% on the year. Copper trades around $5.76 a pound, roughly a third higher than a year ago. Steel pipe and tube are up double digits, cement close behind. Tariffs on steel, aluminum, and copper already sit at 50%, so the July shift stacks on top of real inflation, not a calm baseline.
What contractors are doing about it
Three moves are common right now. Pull orders forward to beat the deadline. Rewrite escalation and force-majeure language so a mid-project duty change doesn’t eat the margin. And re-shop suppliers by country of origin, since the new map rewards sourcing that dodges the steepest duties. None of it is free, and carrying early inventory ties up cash on jobs that haven’t started.
The through-line is the same one driving gypsum price notices and the broader mid-2026 cost climb: materials volatility is now a scheduling risk, not just a budget line. ENR’s cost report tracks the underlying numbers.