A quick look at a few of the bigger things affecting our business this week.
Steel: Sixth straight week of increases. Nucor raised hot-rolled coil another $5/ton on August 31, and domestic HR coil prices are up roughly 9.4% for the month of August alone. Same drivers as the past two months — tight supply, low imports, mills holding pricing power. Still no sign of a ceiling.
Oil: After a brief pullback in late August on hopes of an Iran-Oman deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, prices have climbed right back — Brent is up nearly 11% over the past month and back near $97. The diplomatic progress hasn’t translated into real de-escalation: the U.S. continues hawkish rhetoric against any shipping corridor deal, and both sides have kept up strikes on vessels. On top of that, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve just fell to its lowest level since 1982, which limits our own cushion if things escalate further. Volatile and elevated remains the theme.
Infrastructure: Resolved, for now. The House passed the Senate’s stopgap funding bill 370-48 on September 1, and President Trump signed it into law September 2 — avoiding the September 30 cliff and extending highway/transit funding through December 11. The catch we flagged a few weeks back is still real, though: the extension doesn’t include the advance appropriations that fund transit and passenger rail grants, so those programs are looking at real cuts (APTA estimates transit funding around 20% below this year’s levels) even with the government funding fight avoided. Core state highway formula funding is in solid shape either way.
Bottom line: Steel keeps climbing with no relief, oil is back near its highs despite some diplomatic progress, and the immediate government shutdown risk is off the table, though grant-funded transit work still faces real cuts. Reach out if you want to talk through what any of this means for your project.