The accompanying table shows how Nelson-Farrar indexes have changed during 2004-06 for selected basically nonmetallic building materials.
Data are included for the overall nonmetallic group, five nonmetallic materials, and iron castings.
Building brick and concrete ingredients indexes showed the greatest changes during the period.
Building brick, showing the greatest gains of the two, changed to 1,433.3 in the fourth quarter of 2006 from 1,199.7 in the second quarter of 2004. Concrete ingredients changed to 1,115.9 in the fourth quarter from 888.7 in the first quarter of the period tested.
Fireclay brick, iron castings, and concrete products showed more moderate changes, although none of the changes in the indexes was drastic. The fireclay brick index rose to 1,553.3 from 1,342.4 during the 3-year period. Concrete products changed to 937.1 from 745.3. During the same period iron castings changed to 1,370.8 from 1,151.3.
The smallest index change occurred in the clay products category, changing to 963.1 in fourth quarter 2006 from 839.4 in the first quarter of 2004.
The final category, the overall nonmetallic index, changed to a high of 984.8 during fourth quarter 2006 from 810.1.
