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Soaring Commodity Prices Are Wrecking Construction Plans
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Today: American homes use more than 400 pounds of copper—that’s a problem when prices soar on data center, electrification demand; EU carbon tax hits Ukrainian Factories; Ferrari’s new EV gets derided for its...looks.
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Rising materials prices could become a drag on construction activity. PHOTO: (Nick Oxford/Bloomberg News)
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Welcome back: Rising mortgage rates aren’t the housing market’s only problem. Higher prices for building materials are boosting construction costs and busting renovation budgets, Ryan Dezember writes for the Wall Street Journal.
The data-center boom and disruptions at the world’s second-largest copper mine have pushed the metal’s prices to records. Lumber prices are up because of import taxes and sawmill closures. The Iran war has shocked fuel and chemical markets and boosted prices for resins and plastics as well as the costs of delivering materials such as wallboard and cement to work sites. Many of those goods are also key to electrification, especially the red metal.
Taken together, these rising input costs are adding to an affordability problem that is pushing homeownership beyond reach for more Americans. In addition to boosting the base cost of building and remodeling homes, rising materials prices are contributing to the inflation that has pushed up financing rates.
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EU Carbon Border Levy Is a Growing Source of Tension for Ukraine
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A worker performs his duties in a blast furnace shop at Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works, Zaporizhzhia, southeastern Ukraine PHOTO: (Credit: Dmytro Smolienko/Zuma Press)
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In the fourth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine’s industrial heartland, Kyiv faces another challenge—this time from a partner: the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism.
The levy, which the Ukrainian government and industry say has already sharply reduced steel exports to the bloc, is designed to narrow the carbon-cost gap between EU producers and foreign competitors, Nia Simeonova writes for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business. It puts a price on the embedded CO₂ emissions of imports in six sectors: cement, aluminum, fertilizers, iron and steel, hydrogen and electricity.
“CBAM and the war are not very compatible,” Ukrainian Economy Minister Oleksii Sobolev said, pointing to the added uncertainty the conflict brings for Ukrainian export prices. “It creates an additional disadvantage for us, and then it is easier for EU buyers to shift to other countries,” he added.
European Commission data show Ukraine is the largest exporter of CBAM goods—mainly steel and cement—to the EU in volume terms. The EC projected a “minor” effect for Ukraine’s economy last December—a 0.01% decline compared with a 2025 baseline by 2035—“due to the relatively low emission intensity of iron and steel produced in Ukraine compared with some other third-country producers.”
Sobolev said the tax could cost Ukraine as much as 6.5% of its GDP over the same 10-year period. He also noted a steep fall in exports to the EU across several sectors.
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Six countries ask EU to shield heavy industry from carbon costs (FT)
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Launch of Ferrari’s $640,000 EV Erupts Into a Storm About Its Looks
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The new Ferrari Luce, the first electric car produced by the Maranello-based manufacturer, was presented to the Pope. PHOTO: (Ferrari Press Office/HANDOUT/EPA/Shutterstock)
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Ferrari executives knew there would be haters of their first-ever electric car. They might not have expected the critics to come at them so hard.
The Ferrari Luce has endured a full frontal assault since the company unveiled the long-awaited addition to its lineup this week, the Journal’s Benjamin Katz and Stephen Wilmot report. The spacious, glass-roof design, imagined by the minds behind Apple’s biggest products, has been ridiculed for its 550,000 euros ($640,000) price tag and its similarities to other, much cheaper, electric vehicles, including the mass-market Nissan Leaf.
An avalanche of memes online made fun of its design, and likened it to Jaguar’s widely lamented rebranding from late 2024. Ferrari owners and lifelong fans who for years have been mocking up their own designs of what the EV might look like lambasted the design on chat forums dedicated to the carmaker.
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BP removed its chairman, Albert Manifold, after the board was told that he was verbally abusive and bullying toward employees. (WSJ)
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State Attorney General Ken Paxton clinched the Texas Republican nomination for U.S. Senate after late Trump endorsement. (WSJ)
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The U.S. plans to provide Cold War-era plutonium to companies that want to use the material into fuel for nuclear power plants. (NYT)
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Indonesia's tropical glaciers are rapidly losing mass as fossil fuel pollution heats the planet and melts the ice. (Guardian)
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A major heat wave broke temperature records across northwest Europe sending power prices into negative territory. (Bloomberg)
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New York said it would slash emissions. Now the Empire State is walking back it's climate law in the wake of Trump's relection. (Heatmap)
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California is continuing to bet big on offshore wind advancing a $4.7 billion plan to deploy hundreds of towering wind turbines. (LA Times)
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