European Building Materials Construction Pulse July Edition: Price momentum increasing further as costs also increase; volume outlook continues to look better

Research evidence excerpt

J P M O R G A N

Europe Equity Research

06 August 2026

European Building Materials

Construction Pulse July Edition: Price momentum

increasing further as costs also increase; volume

outlook continues to look better

We present the July edition of JPM Construction Pulse, where we track the three key

drivers of the sector: (i) Price; (ii) Cost; and (iii) Volumes. We restarted our pricing

tracker in mid-December 2025 and since then we have recorded upward pricing

movements of +9.67% (and note this compares to last month’s edition showing a

7.86% increase). We have seen a couple of new price increase announcements in the

US and Europe. From an energy cost perspective, we find that 2026 ytd input costs are

up 20% on average compared to FY25 levels, while July trends show an increase in

costs by 2.1% vs. June, driven by a m/m increase in Natural Gas and Electricity. Our

company-cost level indexes tell a similar story with indexes up 4% in July vs. June

while up ~15% in 2026-ytd vs 2025 average. Indicators continue to improve in the US,

with Housing Starts up 19% m/m in June and up 3% y/y, NAHB Index up 1 point y/y

in July, Existing Home Sales up 3% y/y in June, though there were a few decreases

with the June Dodge Momentum Index down 2% m/m, and Housing Permits down

3% m/m in June and down 2% y/y. In Europe, French Residential Permits were up

24% m/m in June and down 5% y/y, Residential Starts were up 30% m/m in June and

up 13% y/y and in Germany, Resi Construction Orders were flat m/m in April and up

6% y/y, and Civil Construction Orders were up 6% m/m in April and up 8% y/y,

although Non-Resi Construction Orders were down 11% m/m in April and down 14%

y/y. There were some emerging signs of improvement in the UK with Mortgage

Approvals up 3% m/m in June, RICS up 12 points in June, and RIBA Total and

Commercial future trends up by 8 and 7 points, respectively, in June.

Price momentum up at +9.67%. Overall, since we restarted our pricing

tracker in mid-December 2025, 2026 ytd shows an increase in pricing of

~9.67% and overall, for the 340 products that we have tracked, we have seen

price changes across 258 of them. With regards to pricing announcements, we

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