Bitumen Price

Bitumen is a dense, extremely viscous, and petroleum-based hydrocarbon, comprising about 83 percent carbon, 10 percent hydrogen, and lesser quantities of nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and other elements.

 

Quick Overview of Bitumen

✔️An overview of bitumen
✔️The production of bitumen
✔️Trading bitumen as a commodity
Factors driving the price of bitumen as a commodity
Applications of bitumen
Interesting facts about bitumen

 

An overview of bitumen

Bitumen derives from different types of sources:

• Natural bitumen is found in deposits like oil sands, pitch lakes, and bitumen pits.
• Refined bitumen, also called synthetic bitumen, is obtained from the refining of crude oil. Most of the bitumen used in the world is refined bitumen.

Although used interchangeably by some people, bitumen, asphalt, and tar are different materials. For instance:

• Bitumen is obtained from distilling crude oil and is used as an adhesive material to bind sand and stones, producing asphalt for road construction.
• Asphalt refers to the mixture of bitumen and aggregate of other materials as a road surface.
• Tar is a by-product of the carbonisation of coal or wood.

Therefore, based on their sources and properties, asphalt, tar, and bitumen are different materials.

 

Properties of bitumen

• Bitumen is a thermoplastic material, implying that it becomes pliable (easy to mould, blend or shape) above a specific temperature and returns to a solid state when cooled again.

Put differently, bitumen has the ability to transform with temperature variations: at lower temperatures, it is brittle and hard, at room temperature flexible, and at higher temperatures, bitumen turns to a liquid form.

• Bitumen has no specific freezing, boiling, or melting point.
• It is insoluble in water.
• Bitumen oxidises slowly.
• It has a high viscosity, meaning it has a thick, sticky consistency between a solid state and a liquid state.
• It is black or dark-coloured.
• Bitumen is highly inflammable.
• It is not chemically active, also described as chemically inert.
• Due to its versatility, bitumen is easily used in various applications.
• The adhesive property of bitumen enables it to bind with other components without causing any negative or positive changes in their properties.

 

Types of bitumen

Numerous types of bitumen are produced and available, including:

 

• Penetration (PEN) grade bitumen

Penetration grade bitumen also called paving grade bitumen, refers to bitumen that is produced at different viscosities. There are different grades of PEN grade bitumen, based on their level of consistency and hardness. They are classified into grades ranging from 30 to 120.

They carry the name penetration bitumen because a penetration test is applied in which a laboratory needle penetrates them, indicating the hardness of the bitumen. High figures obtained in the test show that the tested bitumen is soft, meaning that the needle has penetrated in more depth. Contrarily, lower figures indicate that the bitumen is hard because the depth of the penetration is shallow.

Bitumen pen grades comprise grades of 30/40, 40/50, 60/70, 80/100, and 85/100. The first number shows the minimum penetration, and the second figure indicates the maximum penetration.

Of all the PEN grades, bitumen 85/100 is the softest, and bitumen 30/40 is the hardest one.

Bitumen penetration grades are mainly used in road construction where bitumen 30/40 is used for road construction in tropical areas.

 

• Bitumen emulsion

Simply put, bitumen emulsion is a combination of water and bitumen with the addition of a third component, known as an emulsifier, acting as an agent to stabilise the mixture.

Typically, bitumen emulsion contains 55 to 65 percent bitumen, 35 to 45 percent water, and an emulsifier, not exceeding 0.5 percent of the bitumen emulsion’s weight.

Bitumen emulsion has a low viscosity, making it suitable to be applied in various ways, such as repairing and maintaining roads, spraying, and waterproofing.

There is no need to heat it before it is applied.

 

• Performance grade (PG) bitumen

Performance grade (PG) bitumen is graded in terms of its performance at different alternating temperatures. Typically, PG bitumen is classified into classes of high-temperature and low-temperature pavement services.

 

• Industrial bitumen

Industrial bitumen, also called oxidized bitumen, is manufactured by applying a blowing process in which hot air is blown through hot penetration grade bitumen (paving grade bitumen).

Oxidized bitumen has a lower penetration grade and higher softening point compared to paving-grade bitumen. Further, it has rubberlike properties, and its viscosity is less affected by changes in temperature than is the case with PEN-grade bitumen.

Based on its softening point and penetration grade, oxidized bitumen is categorised into three categories, namely low, medium, and hard oxidized bitumen.

 

• Polymer-modified bitumen (PMB)

Polymer-modified bitumen (PMB) is produced when bitumen is combined with one or more polymer materials, which are materials made of long, repeating chains of molecules, according to Live Science.

PMB has properties such as strength, cohesiveness, flexibility in colder temperatures, resistance to fatigue and deformation, as well as enhanced waterproofing properties.

 

• Cut back bitumen

Cut back bitumen has a lower viscosity than other types of bitumen. It has been diluted, enhancing its fluidity and suitability for use.

 

The production of bitumen

Major bitumen-producing countries in the world

China is the largest bitumen-producing country in the world. Other major producers include the USA, Russia, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Germany, to name a few.

 

The top bitumen manufacturing companies in the world

Note: The list is not necessarily in terms of rank.

 

• Rosneft (Germany)

Rosneft is the third-largest petroleum refinery in Germany. It produces different grades of bitumen, including bitumen 50/70 and bitumen 70/100.

 

• Exxon Mobil (USA)

Exxon Mobil, headquartered in Irving, Texas, is one of the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas companies. It supplies various grades of bitumen, including cutback bitumen and performance grade bitumen, primarily to markets in North America and Europe.

 

• Infinity Galaxy (UAE)

Infinity Galaxy is based in Dubai, playing an important role in the bitumen markets in India, East Asia, and Africa.

It produces high-quality bitumen.

 

• NIS Group (Serbia)

This Serbian company’s bitumen is very popular in European countries. It manufactures polymer-modified bitumen and penetration-grade bitumen according to European quality standards.

 

• CEPSA (Spain)

CEPSA has its head office in Madrid and is involved in the supply of bitumen for more than eighty years. It is renowned for producing bitumen emulsion and polymer-modified bitumen.

 

• Mol Group (Hungary)

The Mol Company has more than thirty years of experience in the bitumen market. The company is headquartered in Budapest and is well-known in Europe for rubber bitumen and bitumen emulsion.

 

Processing refined bitumen

As mentioned, refined bitumen (synthetic bitumen) is obtained from crude oil by using one of the following two methods: aeration and distillation.

 

• Aeration

Aeration, also called air blowing, is used when the bitumen does not match the required properties. In this method, air (combined with different types of gasses such as oxygen, and nitrogen) is blown by a compressor through the bitumen at elevated temperatures (maximum 190° Celsius) to change it physical properties for specific applications.

Depending on the degree of oxidation, two types of bitumen can be produced: oxidised bitumen and rectified bitumen.

The bitumen obtained in this process is commonly called blown bitumen and has a very low viscosity and a degree of penetration of 300 to 400 mm.

 

• Distillation

Distillation also referred to as the straight run method, involves the heating of crude oil to temperatures between 300 and 350° Celsius, ‘to separate lighter fractions from the non-boiling component, known as atmospheric residuum,’ according to the RAHA Bitumen Company, a global bitumen company operating in more than 100 countries.

RAHA mentions the following steps in the distillation process:

• The lighter fractions are removed and pumped to other refinery units.
• The atmospheric residue is then moved to a vacuum distillation unit ‘where the pressure reduction lowers boiling temperatures and avoids unwanted thermal cracking of the molecules.’
• The temperature level and pressure conditions within the vacuum process determine the hardness of the bitumen and, as a consequence, the grade of bitumen manufactured.

As a substance, bitumen needs to be stored in controlled temperatures, making it extremely difficult to handle.

 

• Recycling of bitumen

Bitumen can also be recycled, which contributes to a sustainable environment. Used bitumen is reheated and allowed to melt, ready to be used again.

 

 

Trading bitumen as a commodity

The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) offers Bitumen futures. Although, trading is restricted to domestic entities and foreign banks. The 70# Class-A Road bitumen is widely traded on the SHFE, according to Trading Economics.

The size of a bitumen futures contract is 10 metric tonnes of bitumen per lot on the expiry date. The final product has to be certified by the SHFE and should comply with certain quality specifications.

Individual investors can indirectly invest in bitumen through publicly traded companies that refine crude oil and/or produce bitumen. Information about this possibility can be obtained from a regulated, and registered commodity broker. Such a broker will also help a novice trader to determine his/her risk appetite for particular investments, as well as the pros, cons, and risks involved when buying shares of the specific companies.

 

Factors driving the price of bitumen as a commodity

It is expected that increasing road construction and maintenance projects will increase the demand for bitumen as adhesive, filler, and sealant.

Numerous road-constructing projects in developing countries such as India and China in the Asia-Pacific region contribute significantly to the demand for bitumen. The increasing demand will subsequently drive the price of bitumen higher.

Bitumen is primarily produced from crude oil. Hence, bitumen prices are significantly dependent on the same factors that impact the price of crude oil. These factors include supply and demand, and geopolitical stability in regions in the world where crude oil is produced.

For example, the Russian war in Ukraine (commencing in late February 2025) caused the price of Brent crude oil to climb to a fourteen-year high of more than $127 per barrel. This was about $48 per barrel higher than Brent crude’s price of $79 per barrel at the beginning of 2025.

Furthermore, decisions by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) about the production of its members per day has also a significant impact on the supply and price of crude oil.

The price spread between heavy and light crude oil is also an important factor that affects the price of bitumen. Bitumen is manufactured as a by-product during the distillation process for heavy crude oil. When producers decide to produce more light crude instead of heavy crude oil, the price of bitumen could be affected negatively.

Numerous uses of bitumen in paints, coatings, and other applications can increase the demand for bitumen, which will drive the commodity’s price higher.

 

Applications of bitumen

Working with bitumen requires warm and dry conditions. Its waterproofing characteristics and sticky nature allow the different types of bitumen to be used in numerous ways. For instance:

• Road construction and maintenance and other types of surfacing

Penetration (PEN) grade bitumen is mostly used in the construction and maintenance of roads. Higher penetration grades of bitumen are used in colder weather conditions while lower penetration bitumen is used in warmer regions.

Bitumen is mixed with other components like sand, crushed rock, and gravel and its sticky nature serves as a binding agent to glue all the construction materials together. In addition, bitumen’s waterproofing properties prevent rainwater to permeate the road surface, allowing the water to simply run off.

Bitumen is also applied in the making of other types of surfaces such as pavements, cycle tracks, playgrounds in parks and at schools, car parks at shopping centres, railway platforms, and runways at airports and airfields.

 

• Roofing

Blown bitumen, like oxidized bitumen, is used in roofing applications. It is estimated that approximately 10 percent of the global bitumen production is used for roofing purposes.

Before the roof tiles are laid, a bitumen lining is applied to prevent water to seep in, making sure everything keeps dry inside the building.

 

• Bitumen paint

Bitumen paint is water-resistant and alkaline-resistant, allowing it to be used as a protective coating. It can be applied to materials such as iron, wood, steel, and concrete.

It is typically used to coat gutters, pipes, fences, water tanks, and boat hulls, to name a few.

 

Interesting facts about bitumen

• Bitumen is only used as a construction material, mainly in road construction, and not for its energy-generating combustion qualities due to its high content of carbon.
• Because it is not burned, bitumen does not create CO2 emissions, making it one of the most environmentally friendly products obtained from crude oil.
• The high carbon content of bitumen requires that the material is kept at about 150 degrees Celsius, to keep it from solidifying into a rock-hard wax.
• The job of a driver of a bitumen road tanker is considered extremely dangerous because the bitumen is loaded into tankers near boiling point, implying that drivers are required to wear full protective clothing for all parts of the body.
• The earliest known use of bitumen dates back to the time of the Neanderthals about 40 000 years ago.
• In ancient times, bitumen was used for a variety of things, for example: as building mortar, as a decorative pigment and texture on pots, human skin, and buildings, and as a sealant, to name a few.
• In Egypt, bitumen was used in the embalming techniques on Egyptian mummies at the end of the New Kingdom after 1100 BCE. Actually, the word from which the term ‘mummy’ originates, ‘mumiyyah,’ means bitumen in Arabic.

 

Note: This article does not constitute investment, financial or trading advice. Please obtain the advice of a professional and regulated commodity broker before making trading and investment decisions.