World bitumen prices

The rapid changes of the world bitumen prices have resulted in a concern to bitumen suppliers in the world. As we all know, the changes in crude oil will cause changes in the world bitumen prices. Unfortunately, these fluctuations bring some problematic issues for the authorities that have fixed budgets. That’s why the bitumen price variations are important to most of the countries in the world. In fact, world bitumen prices have always been a concerning topic of the everyday news!

Concerns about the oil & bitumen resources

Here comes the question that is the world running out of bitumen? Or how many countries export bitumen? How long can the bitumen resources provide the world’s need for the petrochemical products? To answer these questions, we need to refer to the global consumption of fossil fuels that is over 11 billion tons of oil every year. Crude oil reserves are disappearing at a rate of more than 4 billion tons a year. Therefore, if we carry on as we are, the oil deposits could run out in just over 53 years. This can be also another reason for the global concerns about the bitumen. In some countries such as South Africa, the drop in road construction projects, has become another concern for bitumen suppliers.

Paying attention to an authority’s suggestion about the world bitumen prices is useful. “The supply and demand for bitumen around the world is changing; refineries, suppliers, and contractors must all make changes too.” This is part of an authority’s speech about the world’s concerns for oil and bitumen. “In Europe and globally there is a very big chain of events happening,” said Bernd Schmidt, CEO of Bitumina. “It’s difficult for anyone to see what will happen in the bitumen world.”

Future bitumen prices

Although bitumen prices are not predetermined and depend on various items, analysts can predict the future of the world’s bitumen prices. For instance, the last seven years had significant shifts in the demand for bitumen. In 2005, according to figures from Bitumen & Asphalt Report, the USA demand, using 39% of the world’s total 105.5 million tons was the first, the second was Europe and third Asia. In 2012, Asia passed America and became the largest consumer of bitumen, with 32.9% of a total of 95.5 million tons. On the other hand, Europe slipped into third place with 18%. These figures are likely to change again in the future, while Asia’s division continues to grow. European refineries are already feeling the impact of Asia’s dominance in the bitumen market.

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