Politicians blame competition from developing nations for rising oil prices.
Now builders blame them for rising copper costs as well.
"Markets are very volatile because demand is up in the developing nations of India and China," says BJ Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Clark and Sullivan at its Reno office.
"In the last year, copper has gone up 300 percent.
That is a huge deal for the electrical trade."
When the commodity was pretty stable, pre-buys weren't common, says Sullivan, "But now they buy when they get the contract.
It's a huge hit."
"Electricians are buying in bulk to protect themselves," says Melody Perry, branch manager at Rexel Pacific, an electrical distributor in Carson City Before, when prices were stable, they would buy for one house at a time, she says.
But now, some electricians with warehouses buy for 10 houses at a time.
(A typically sized house of 1,420 square feet requires 1,250 feet of copper wire.) "We were doing monthly quotes," Perry adds.
"Now we're doing daily quotes."And when it comes to getting product, she says, "Suppliers will quote us the price at the moment, but charge us the price at time of shipping."
"Prices have gone up roughly 200 to 300 percent since first of the year," says Ray Edwards, manager of Nevada operations at Granite Electrical Supply, Inc.
Most electricians are cutting back, he says.
They're just buying for their immediate needs.
Meanwhile, those with big projects are stockpiling to meet their obligations.
Price increases can be a daily occurrence, says Perry.
"We were experiencing 17 percent price increases.
April 23 registered a 17.92 percent increase, and on May 3 we saw a 17.65 percent increase.
Other days registered increases in the 12 to 14 percent range.
In the last month, we saw a 50 to 60 percent increase."
Those material costs make a big impact on building.
"Costs are 45 percent for materials and 40 percent for labor," says Sullivan.
"My company was hit with huge escalation costs three years ago when steel went up 100 percent."
Everybody in the industry is becoming more cognizant of costs, he adds, because inflation is running 10 to 15 percent in all building materials.
"Nine months ago it was PVC pipe, now it's copper.
Before that it was steel," Sullivan says.
Zinc has also gone up 75 percent in the past year, says Edwards.
As has PVC pipe.
The exact amount is difficult to determine, he says, as it has been on a roller coaster ride the past year.
Keeping pace with PVC is PEX pipe, used in place of copper for plumbing.
"All last year, we saw increases of 50 to 100 percent in PEX," says Cameron Pascal, purchasing manager at Express Plumbing.
"And this year, another 8 percent increase."
"We try to pass on the costs annually," he says, adding that for the most part, customers are understanding.
One factor mitigating the rising costs of materials is the overall slowdown in home building.
"Construction has slowed tremendously since 2005, due to the rising interest rates and high inventory of houses," says Pascal, whose company works on new construction of single-family residential.
"We still have a ton of projects, but we're not working seven days a week."
Developers have eased up because, "Now there's 5,000 to 6,000 homes on the market," he says, "compared with last year when there were only a couple hundred."
However, firms that primarily lease rather than sell can't always pass on those costs.
While rising commodity prices can have an impact, lease rates are more market driven, says Matt Clafton, regional vice president and general manager at Panattoni Construction.
The company builds factory and warehouse space for tenants who are large power users.
And all the power is carried on copper wires.
"When we build for ourselves and lease, we must bear the costs ourselves," he says.
