Europe’s bitumen market remained slow due to cold weather, weak demand, and government budget shifts. The UK and Ireland saw no shipments as rain and cold halted activity. France and Benelux kept prices steady amid low demand. Germany faced construction delays, while Poland, the Czech Republic, and Ukraine struggled with budget cuts. Hungary and Romania paused as refineries shut for maintenance. Economic pressures weighed as much as seasonal slowdowns.
UK & Ireland: No Shipments, No Activity
As the weather continues to be cold and it frequently rains in parts of the country, UK domestic prices were unchanged at $592-605 per ton. These factors negatively affected activity and demand for bitumen. No shipments were indicated into Irish terminals during the week ending 14 February.
Stable Prices in France’s Slow Market
Domestic prices in France remained unchanged at $550-560 per ton for delivery to the north and central regions. These prices were also delivered at $5344-544 per ton to the southern parts of the country.
Bitumen demand was fragile across the Ukrainian market due to ongoing cold weather. Ukrainian bitumen imports in the first nine days of February totaled only 117 tons compared with almost 900 tons over the same period of January, according to market participants. Ukrainian bitumen consumption declined last year as the government allocated funds for road construction to the war effort.
According to market participants, consumption fell to 200,000-230,000 tons from 310,000- 330,000 tons in 2023 as they did not see big tenders for constructing new roads or restoring existing roads. They said bitumen was mainly used for pothole repairs. They added that even in those cases, the government delayed payments for completed work due to a lack of funds.
Maintenance Brings a Pause in Hungary/Romania
The region saw little movement in prices or activity as winter weather continues to sweep the area, where most refinery bitumen plants are shut for their usual winter maintenance work.
Hungarian and Romanian domestic truck prices both remained assessed in the $487-497 per ton.
The facility consists of five 250-ton capacity tanks used just for bitumen storage and three 250-ton tanks used solely for the production of bitumen grades.
Baltics’s Frozen Demands
Regional demand remained extremely low because of the usual winter conditions, with domestic prices for truck flows from Orlen Lietuva’s Mazeikiai refinery in Lithuania staying at $544 per ton for pen 50/70 bitumen and $567 per ton for pen 100/150 and 160/220 grades.
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Bitumen Price In Europe (Updated on February 18, 2025)
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