70+ Manufacturing Raw Material Price Statistics for 2026

Headline Manufacturing Raw Material Price Statistics

The big story is simple: factory input costs are not back to 2019. The steel mill products PPI sat at 348.5 in May 2026, up 86.1% from January 2020. Nonferrous metals were even higher relative to 2020, up 111.1%. No. 2 diesel fuel was up 176.8% from January 2020, which matters because freight, inbound supply, outbound delivery, and service calls all touch fuel.

The pressure is uneven. Paper mills were up only 0.7% year over year in May 2026, while plastics material and resin manufacturing was up 18.5% and industrial chemicals were up 16.1%. That spread is why broad inflation headlines do not work for quoting parts. A shop buying resin and a shop buying packaging board can face very different cost curves in the same month.

The ISM Manufacturing PMI December 2025 report showed a Prices Index of 58.5, indicating raw material prices rose for the 15th straight month. That survey signal lines up with the plant-level reality. Purchasing teams are not just dealing with higher prices. They're dealing with harder quote validity, surcharge language, substitution decisions, supplier allocation, and buyers who still remember old pricing.

Manufacturing Raw Material Price Index Table

The table below uses monthly BLS Producer Price Index series distributed through FRED. Index levels are for May 2026. Year-over-year change compares May 2026 with May 2025. The last column compares May 2026 with January 2020, which gives manufacturers a practical pre-surge baseline.

Material Category Breakdown

Steel and fabricated metal inputs

Steel remains one of the hardest inputs to hide inside a quote. The steel mill products index was 348.5 in May 2026, up 6.7% from May 2025 and 86.1% from January 2020. Iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing was up 87.2% from January 2020, while rolled steel shape manufacturing was up 56.5% over the same period.

That gap matters. A job shop quoting plate, bar, tube, and structural shapes cannot use one single steel inflation number. The iron and steel index was up 68.4% from January 2020, while the broader metals and metal products index was up 73.3%. If a quote is valid for 60 days, purchasing needs either a firm supplier hold or a material adjustment clause.

Plastics, resin, and rubber products

Plastics are a good example of why month-by-month review beats annual budgeting. Plastics material and resin manufacturing primary products increased 18.5% year over year in May 2026 and 46.2% from January 2020. The downstream all other plastics product manufacturing index rose 3.5% year over year and 33.9% from January 2020.

The difference between resin movement and finished plastic product movement can squeeze converters. A molder may see resin jump before a customer accepts a price increase. The broader rubber and plastic products index was up 36.7% from January 2020, which shows how much of the post-2020 cost reset still sits inside finished components.

Chemicals, industrial gases, and petroleum-linked inputs

Chemical inputs were moving faster than many finished goods categories in May 2026. Industrial chemicals rose 16.1% year over year and 39.8% from January 2020. Industrial gas manufacturing was up 6.0% year over year and 48.2% from January 2020. For heat treating, welding, packaging, medical manufacturing, and process industries, gas and chemical pricing is not background noise. It touches throughput, waste, quality, and compliance.

Fuel is the loudest outlier in this dataset. Petroleum refineries were up 84.0% year over year in May 2026 and 136.5% from January 2020. No. 2 diesel fuel was up 105.9% year over year and 176.8% from January 2020. Even manufacturers with stable material contracts can feel that through inbound freight, outbound delivery, field service, and vendor surcharges.

Wood, paper, cement, and nonmetallic minerals

Wood and packaging did not move as sharply year over year, but they still sit well above 2020. Lumber was up 4.2% year over year and 34.1% from January 2020. Sawmills were up 4.4% year over year and 27.5% from January 2020. Paper mills were nearly flat year over year at 0.7%, but still up 23.9% from January 2020.

Building products tell the same story. Nonmetallic mineral products were up 41.4% from January 2020. Cement and concrete product manufacturing dipped 0.6% year over year in May 2026, but stayed 39.5% above January 2020. Cooling in one month does not erase the base reset that happened over six years.

Raw Material Price Pressure by Manufacturing Sector

The same PPI release can mean very different things on different factory floors. A precision machine shop cares about steel, aluminum, coolants, tooling, and freight. A packaging converter cares about paper, resin, energy, and shipping lanes. A food processor may have stable equipment costs but volatile packaging and distribution costs.

How Manufacturers Should Use This Data

Raw material price statistics are useful only if they change behavior. If sales is quoting from last year's standard cost, the business is giving away margin. If purchasing updates costs but sales never sees the movement, the shop still loses. If finance waits until month end, the team learns about margin loss after the order has shipped.

The best use is simple. Tie quote rules to the material families that actually drive your jobs. A metal fabricator should watch steel, metals and metal products, and diesel. A plastics processor should watch resin, rubber and plastic products, industrial chemicals, and freight. A building products manufacturer should watch lumber, cement, nonmetallic minerals, diesel, and energy-linked inputs.

The BLS Producer Price Index program is useful because it tracks price movement received by domestic producers. It is not a supplier quote and it will not match every alloy, grade, resin family, board spec, or freight lane. Still, it gives manufacturers a neutral reference when a customer asks why a repeat order changed. It also gives sales a clean way to say, "Here is the public index behind the adjustment."

The Federal Reserve's G.17 industrial production release adds context because input prices matter differently when capacity is tight. If production is soft, suppliers may negotiate. If capacity is tight, a rising material index may come with allocation or longer lead times. Price is only one part of supply risk.

For marketing and sales teams, this is also buyer intent data. When material categories swing, buyers search for alternate suppliers, shorter lead times, domestic sources, and RFQ help. A resource page that clearly explains cost pressure gives procurement teams something to cite, and it positions your company as a practical supplier rather than another shop saying "contact us for a quote."

Margin Risk Hidden in Raw Material Prices

The most dangerous material cost is not always the biggest line item. It is the line item that changes after the quote is accepted and before the purchase order converts to cash. A machine shop can estimate labor within a tight band. It can estimate setup time, inspection time, and outside processing with decent accuracy. But if the job uses stainless, aluminum, resin, industrial gas, or diesel-heavy freight, the material assumption can move faster than the routing.

This is why the spread between categories matters. In May 2026, machine shops were up 2.1% year over year, while nonferrous metals were up 40.1% year over year. A shop's selling price may look stable at the industry level while the material inside one quote is moving hard. That is where contribution margin gets quietly eaten.

Buyers often ask why a repeat order costs more when the part number did not change. The answer is usually that the drawing stayed the same but the inputs did not. Steel mill products were 86.1% above January 2020 by May 2026. Plastics material and resin manufacturing was 46.2% above January 2020. Industrial chemicals were 39.8% above January 2020. Those are not small rounding errors.

The other hidden risk is timing. A manufacturer may quote from supplier data that is already two weeks old. The buyer may take another three weeks to approve the RFQ. Purchasing may not buy material until the work order is released. If the supplier quote expires during that window, the manufacturer owns the gap unless the sales terms say otherwise. Public indexes do not solve that problem, but they make the risk visible.

This matters for backlog too. When a plant has a long backlog, material booked today may support shipments months from now. If the order does not include escalation language, the backlog can look healthy while future margin is already weaker than expected. The Federal Reserve's industrial production and capacity data can help teams understand whether suppliers are likely to have room to negotiate, but it cannot replace live supplier quotes.

The practical answer is not to overcomplicate every quote. It is to match quote discipline to material exposure. Low-material service jobs may not need much price protection. Jobs with heavy steel, resin, chemicals, nonferrous metals, or freight should get shorter validity windows, supplier-backed material holds, or transparent adjustment language. That protects the manufacturer and gives the buyer a cleaner explanation.

There is also a cash conversion issue. Higher material prices mean more cash tied up before the customer pays. A fabricator buying steel at a price level 86.1% above January 2020, based on the steel mill products index, may need more working capital for the same physical tonnage. If payment terms stretch and material turns slowly, the pressure shows up as a cash squeeze even when the income statement still looks fine.

Inventory strategy gets harder in the same way. Buying ahead can protect margin when prices rise, but it can also trap cash in the wrong grade or resin if demand shifts. Waiting until the purchase order is signed protects cash, but it exposes the quote to supplier price changes. The data in this report does not pick the answer for every shop. It gives teams a shared reference so sales, purchasing, finance, and operations can make the tradeoff with the same facts on the table. That shared view is especially useful when repeat customers expect old pricing, but suppliers are quoting from a different market than the one used in last year's blanket order. It also helps account managers avoid vague explanations. Instead of saying costs went up, they can point to the exact public index that moved and explain how that input affects the part, the shipment, or the surcharge on the purchase order. That makes the discussion less emotional and easier to approve during supplier reviews and customer calls.

Methodology and Data Notes

This report uses public index data rather than private invoice surveys. The core dataset comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index program, with individual time series accessed through FRED. For each material category, we pulled the latest available monthly value for May 2026, compared it with May 2025 for the year-over-year change, and compared it with January 2020 for the long-run reset since the pre-pandemic baseline.

Index levels should not be read as dollars per ton, dollars per pound, or dollars per gallon. A steel mill products index value of 348.5 does not mean steel costs $348.50. It means the index is at 348.5 relative to the base period used by that BLS series. The percentage movement is the useful part for most manufacturers. If an index is up 86.1% from January 2020, a buyer can see the direction and scale of the market change even if their exact alloy moved differently.

We separated upstream material categories from downstream manufacturing categories because pass-through is not instant. In May 2026, plastics material and resin manufacturing was up 18.5% year over year, while all other plastics product manufacturing was up 3.5% year over year. That gap is useful for converters, OEM buyers, and distributors because it shows where margin pressure may sit before it reaches finished components.

Diesel and petroleum-linked indexes are included because manufacturers do not buy raw materials in a vacuum. The No. 2 diesel fuel index was up 176.8% from January 2020 and 105.9% year over year in May 2026. That affects inbound freight, outbound freight, installation crews, service trucks, distributors, and supplier surcharges. A material cost model that ignores freight can look precise on paper and still miss the landed cost.

The ISM survey is used as a directional check, not as a replacement for price indexes. The December 2025 ISM Prices Index reading of 58.5 showed raw material prices rising for the 15th straight month. That survey captures what purchasing managers were feeling in the market. The PPI tables show how selected categories actually moved.

Procurement Playbook for Volatile Material Costs

Material volatility is not only a purchasing problem. It is a quoting problem, a sales problem, a customer communication problem, and sometimes a cash-flow problem. A shop can win the order and still lose money if the quote uses stale material assumptions. That is why material indexes should feed the quoting process, not sit in a finance spreadsheet that nobody sees until the month closes.

Start with the handful of inputs that actually drive margin. A custom metal fabricator may need to watch steel mill products, nonferrous metals, and diesel fuel. A plastics processor may care more about resin, industrial chemicals, and energy-linked supplier charges. A packaging-heavy manufacturer should watch paper mills, lumber, and freight.

Quote validity should follow the market. If the supplier will only hold steel pricing for 10 days, the customer quote should not promise 45 days without a material adjustment clause. When steel mill products are up 6.7% year over year and 86.1% from January 2020, a long quote window is not customer service. It is risk transfer from the buyer to the manufacturer.

Standard costs also need a review rhythm. If finance updates standard material costs once a year, the numbers will lag the market during fast changes. In this dataset, nonferrous metals rose 40.1% year over year in May 2026. A quarterly review would catch some of that. An annual review would bury it in margin variance after orders are already shipped.

Supplier communication should be specific. Asking a supplier if prices are "going up" is too vague. Ask which series, grade, alloy, resin family, freight lane, or surcharge changed. If a supplier points to the BLS PPI release, the buying team can check whether that public series matches the line item being adjusted. That does not guarantee a lower price, but it keeps the discussion tied to data instead of anecdotes.

Customers usually accept price changes better when the explanation is plain. A buyer may push back on a generic "inflation adjustment." They are more likely to understand a note that says resin is up 18.5% year over year, steel mill products are up 86.1% from January 2020, or diesel is up 176.8% from January 2020, with each claim linked to a public source. Specific beats dramatic.

Why This Data Is Link-Worthy for Manufacturing Marketers

Raw material price data earns links because it helps people explain something painful. Procurement teams use it to justify quote changes. CFOs use it to talk about margin pressure. Sales teams use it to set expectations with repeat buyers. Industry writers use it when they need a sourced number for steel, resin, chemicals, diesel, or packaging costs.

The best linkable resource pages do not bury the source. Every number on this page points to BLS, FRED, ISM, or the Federal Reserve. That matters because a manufacturing buyer does not want mystery statistics. If a buyer is going to share a page internally, they need to trust the chain from claim to source.

This topic also matches real search behavior. When resin prices jump or steel indexes climb, buyers search for context before they approve a supplier increase. A clear data page can catch that research moment and introduce the manufacturer before the buyer sends the next RFQ.

Manufacturers can use the same structure for their own sites. A metal shop can publish a steel surcharge guide. A plastics company can publish a resin price explainer. A packaging supplier can publish a paper and freight cost tracker. The goal is not to pretend public indexes match every invoice. The goal is to give buyers a useful reference that proves the supplier understands the cost environment.

The payoff is trust. A buyer who sees clear numbers, citations, and practical interpretation is more likely to believe the supplier when pricing changes. That trust can shorten the back-and-forth around quotes, especially when material cost is the only thing standing between a verbal approval and a purchase order.

Manufacturing Raw Material Price FAQ

What is the best public source for manufacturing raw material prices?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index is the best starting point for broad public data. FRED makes many BLS PPI series easy to chart and download, including steel mill products, plastics material and resin manufacturing, and industrial chemicals.

Why do manufacturer material costs differ from PPI data?

PPI series are indexes, not invoice prices. Your actual cost depends on grade, spec, freight, volume, contract terms, surcharges, scrap, supplier mix, and timing. The data is still useful because it shows direction and magnitude from a public source.

How often should manufacturers update material costs?

High-material jobs should be reviewed at least monthly, and more often when supplier quotes are short. In this dataset, diesel, petroleum refining, plastics resin, industrial chemicals, and nonferrous metals all showed double-digit year-over-year movement in May 2026, so quarterly updates would miss too much.

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