This publication is now published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). All references to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) made in this publication refer to when it was published by BIS. This has made no impact to the content of the publication. This commentary accompanies the latest Monthly Statistics of Building Materials and Components bulletin, published on the BEIS building materials web page on 9th January 2019. It aims to provide a brief overview of recent trends in the data presented in the bulletin. The bulletin presents the latest detailed information on selected building materials and components. It covers the following building materials statistics (in parentheses, the data collection frequency and the geographical area covered) and the construction material price indices (monthly, UK), sand and gravel sales (quarterly, GB*), slate production, deliveries and stocks (quarterly, GB) , cement and clinker production, deliveries and stocks (annual, GB), bricks production, deliveries and stocks (monthly, GB*), concrete building blocks production, deliveries and stocks (monthly, GB*),  concrete roofing tiles production, deliveries and stocks (quarterly, GB), ready-mixed concrete deliveries (quarterly, UK), values of overseas imports and exports trades for selected materials and components for use in construction (quarterly, UK) and Value of EU and Non-EU Trade for selected materials and components for use in construction (annual, UK) . These statistics support analysis of the construction materials market and business planning. They are regularly reported in the construction press and are used for a variety of purposes, including policy development and evaluation concerning the construction products industry, as well as monitoring market trends.