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April 11, 2026
Your Material Costs Just Changed. Your Bids Probably Did Not.
Welcome back to Blue Collar Profits, built for owners and operators who'd rather solve a problem than read about one.
This week the news is not abstract. The Associated General Contractors recently updated their official tariff guidance with some numbers every trade contractor needs to know: steel, aluminum, and copper items are now carrying tariffs as high as 50%. Lumber derivatives are at 25%. Construction input prices surged at a 12.6% annualized rate in the first two months of 2026, the fastest pace since the supply chain crisis of 2022.
If you are running fixed-price bids built on 2025 material quotes, you are already underwater on some of them and you may not know it yet. This issue is about what to do right now, before you sign another job.
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In this issue
• Profit Play: reprice your open bids before tariffs reprice them for you
• The Number: what $29 billion a month in tariffs actually means for your quotes
• The Leak: fixed-price contracts with no escalation clause
• The Script: how to tell a customer prices changed without losing the job
• Operator Insight: the contractors surviving this are doing one thing differently
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The Profit Play
Pull every open bid you have not signed yet. Reprice them today.
Construction input prices are now running at a 12.6% annualized rate through early 2026, driven by tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper, and lumber. Any bid you built on quotes from late 2025 or early 2026 should be treated as suspect until verified with your supplier this week.
• Call your top two or three material suppliers this week and ask for a current price sheet. Not last month's. This week's.
• Add a material price escalation clause to every new proposal you send. The AGC now recommends the ConsensusDocs 200.1 amendment as the standard language.
• Set a hard expiration on any open quote: 7 days maximum. After that, prices are subject to change.
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The Number
$29 billion. That is what tariffs are pulling out of the supply chain every single month.
New analysis shows the U.S. government is now collecting $29 billion per month in tariff revenue. That money does not disappear. It flows directly out of the pockets of every business buying imported materials, components, and equipment. For trade contractors buying steel, copper, aluminum, and lumber-derived products, that sustained pressure is not going away regardless of court rulings or political headlines. It is baked into the price of doing business right now.
What this number should tell every operator:
• This is not a short-term disruption you can wait out. At $29B/month, the tariff machine is running at full speed and suppliers are passing costs downstream.
• The average household is now absorbing an estimated $1,050 to $1,300 annually in hidden tariff costs, meaning your customers are also feeling the squeeze and pushing back on prices.
• Operators who lock in material pricing now and write escalation clauses into contracts are the ones who will not be caught mid-job when the next round of quotes comes in higher.
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The Leak
A fixed-price contract with no escalation clause is a blank check you signed for your customer.
Under a standard lump-sum contract, every tariff-driven material increase is yours to absorb. The customer pays the original price. You eat the difference. The AGC has been direct about this: firms signing contracts right now without price escalation provisions are taking on risk that cannot be passed along once the paperwork is done.
• Nearly 40% of contractors expect material costs to climb further from here.
• Around 70% of contractors have already been affected by current tariffs on active jobs.
• Many ABC members report projects cancelled or rebid after updated material quotes came in 10-15% over original budget.
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The Script / Template
How to tell a customer prices went up without losing the job (copy/paste ready).
Repricing an open quote: "I want to flag something before we move forward. Federal tariffs on steel, copper, and lumber were recently updated and the AGC just issued a notice. Material pricing on your job has shifted since I sent the original quote. I need to revise the number by $[X] to reflect actual costs. I want to be straight with you now rather than cut corners on the job later."
New quote escalation clause (add to every proposal): "This quote is valid for 7 calendar days from the date above. Material pricing is subject to change due to active federal tariff adjustments. If the project start date is more than 30 days from signing, a material cost review will be conducted prior to procurement."
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Operator Insight
The contractors surviving this are buying early and writing better contracts. That is it.
Volatility is not going away. The operators winning right now locked in supply agreements ahead of the spike and stopped signing lump-sum contracts without escalation language. Two moves. Do them before the next job.
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Why it matters
This is not a slow-moving problem. The tariff update is recent. Most contractors have not adjusted their open quotes yet. That gap between what the market now costs and what you already bid is where margin goes to die.
Two actions before Monday: call your suppliers for current pricing, and add an escalation clause to every proposal going out the door. That is not a legal nicety. Right now, it is a survival move.
What trade-specific material are you seeing the biggest price swings on right now? Reply and tell us. We want to break it down by trade in a future issue.
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Until the next one,
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Jonathan Price
Editor-in-Chief
Blue Collar Profits
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P.S. While you are tightening up your bids, make sure your phones are not losing jobs on the other end. EOC Voice runs AI agents that answer every call, qualify the lead, and book the appointment even when your crew is on a job site.
Get the quick overview here.
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