Bitumen price
Introduction
Bitumen is a useful material that people use in many industries. It’s interesting to know that more than 85% of the bitumen in the world is used for road construction, 10% is used in other constructions, and finally, 5% is used in other types of industries involving insulation. Keep reading to get some information about bitumen prices and other helpful things like bitumen types and the effective factors in bitumen price.
What is bitumen?
Bitumen is a glutinous composed. It exists in a liquid to semi-solid phase. The color of bitumen is blackish-brown.
It is normally composed of asphaltene resin and also other petroleum compounds.
Different compositions of bitumen end in different possessions.
Source of bitumen | Bitumen Price
Bitumen is discovered in nature. But it can also be extracted from crude oil. This may affect bitumen price.
1. bitumen of natural source
Many years ago, alive organisms like microscopic algae were hidden under sedimentary rocks, in swamps, and also in other aquatic natural environments.
Then these residues were changed to natural bitumen. It happened under the pressure of the upper sedimentary layers and temperature above 50 C.
Natural bitumen has many impurities like sulfur and heavy metals. As we said, natural bitumen is more expensive. Because the cost of extracting and using the bitumen is included.
2. crude oil distillation
Crude oil is the main source of bitumen for the industry. In fact, crude oil is a blend of different compounds which is split by a distillation tower. The remains of the distillation tower, named vacuum bottom, are changed to be processed and turned to bitumen.
Types of bitumen
Whereas different types of crude oils give different types of bitumen with entirely different properties, grading bitumen is essential. This may affect bitumen price.
If you want to grade bitumen based on its properties, refineries utilize a number of standard tests to calcite the viscosity level, penetration value, functioning, and consistency of bitumen.
The consequence of these tests is bitumen penetration grades and viscosity process. Also, there are other grades of bitumen, for instance, cutback bitumen, oxidized bitumen, and bitumen emulsions.
Please keep reading and we will tell you about bitumen price changes.
Bitumen price
Some of you may know that bitumen is an essential material for so many industries. Bitumen has also become highly applicable recently. As we said, there are many grades and products for which everyone has various applications and uses. But besides all of this, there is something very important that you may find noticeable, the bitumen price.
Somewhat, the bitumen price and its operations are even more noticeable than the bitumen itself. But why? You may want to know the reason for this. Because there are plenty of things that affect bitumen price. These things include oil prices, petrochemical product demands, the state in the different markets, and the international happening.
So this is a general complicated subject that needs correct analysis and predictions. Eventually, the bitumen price will influence some other particularities and elements somehow.
To put it another way, since some subjects impact the bitumen price, the bitumen price itself leads to some changes in some trades and schemes. Please read the rest of this article so you can know what items affect the bitumen price.
What elements affect bitumen price?
Bitumen mainly is derived bitumen from the vacuum bottom in oil refineries. Bitumen make referred to it as the heaviest section of crude oil, which is the foundation material for creating bitumen. As a result, the VB price is enormously influential in bitumen and other petrochemical prices.
We will mention some items that affect straight on the Vacuum Bottom:
(VB) price:
- Fuel price
- Crude price
- Crude oil price
- Political circumstances
- Currency rates equality
How did the bitumen price alter in 2017-2018?
In 2018, in accord with the global increase in GDP, developing countries’ demand for bitumen, and the growth in global oil prices, bitumen prices achieved a better situation compared to 2017.
2018, three important incidents in the world affected the Middle East, changing both the request and the supply side of the cost. In January 2018, Venezuela’s oil production decreased to its lowest level since January 2003. As a result, crude oil costs have ascended. So the bitumen price increased too.
In May 2018, the United States left the Iran nuclear agreement, which leads to more turbulences in the price and market afterward. Also, there were more challenges that were imposed on the bitumen market in May 2018. Because of that, the variations in bitumen prices achieved their highest level in 2018.
You may be shocked to find that the lowest price of bitumen this year was 290 USD, whilst the highest value was 370 USD.
Bitumen Price Change in 2019-2020
Because of the coronavirus, the year 2020 was a clamant year. Before that, brent crude oil sore to its toppest-level in the four months of 2020. So, when the oil value change, the bitumen price will change, too.
In fact, the prices in the middle east have more variations. Because the u.s. has more quarrels with Asian countries like China, Iran, etc. But European countries have difficulty with their economy and prices.
Bitumen price 2021
As we said, international events can have a big effect on the bitumen price. Also, the oil market is affected by these events. For example, the coronavirus had an enormous effect on the price and market.
Conclusion
We talked about bitumen and related things like bitumen types and bitumen prices. As you read, some factors affect the prices and we covered some of them.
If you like to know the exact and real-time price of bitumen, you can just check this page every day. Also, we can help you with bitumen investing. You can contact us any time in order to get any related information. At Bitumen Co, we can happily help you. So please just keep in touch with us and you will never lose even a small change in bitumen price.
