According to WPB, India’s bitumen supply balance has shifted sharply in 2026, with imports falling to approximately 905,000 metric tons in January-June, about half the 1.81 million tons recorded in the same period of 2025. The contraction became substantially more severe during the second quarter, when imports dropped to 271,356 tons from 857,419 tons a year earlier, a decline of approximately 68%.
The scale of the second-quarter fall is particularly important. Based on the six-month totals, first-quarter imports were approximately 634,000 tons, around 33% below the comparable 2025 level. By the second quarter, the annual decline had more than doubled in percentage terms. This shows that India’s import contraction was not simply the continuation of a weak start to the year; external supply became significantly more difficult as the first half progressed.
India’s official trade system provides import quantities at the eight-digit customs level, including HS 27132000 for petroleum bitumen, with data currently available through June 2026. The latest trade figures therefore provide a clearer picture of the physical disruption than price movements alone. India remained able to import bitumen, but the volumes entering the country were far below the levels normally used to support one of the world’s largest road-building markets.
The change is especially significant because India has historically relied on imported material to supplement domestic refinery production. Gulf suppliers have played an important role in that balance because of geographic proximity, competitive product pricing and established bulk-bitumen shipping routes to India’s west coast. When those routes became more difficult, India did not have enough immediately available alternative supply to replace lost Gulf volumes on a one-for-one basis.
The April data had already provided an early warning. India imported approximately 236,000 tons of bitumen in April 2026, compared with around 297,000 tons in April 2025. At that stage, the year-on-year contraction was slightly above 20%. The full second-quarter figure now shows that conditions deteriorated considerably beyond April.
One of the clearest signs of that disruption appeared in June, when an Indian state-controlled refiner sourced approximately 5,000 tons of bitumen from South China to meet urgent requirements. It was the second South China-origin cargo imported during 2026. The volume itself is small relative to India’s total market, but its importance lies in what it reveals about procurement behavior.
South China is not traditionally the first supply option for Indian bitumen buyers when Gulf-origin material is available under normal freight conditions. Moving a cargo from China to India involves a different sailing distance, freight structure and regional price relationship. The fact that buyers turned to South China indicates that supply security had become important enough to justify using a less conventional route.
That does not mean China is about to replace the Gulf as India’s principal external source of bitumen. Chinese availability depends heavily on domestic refinery production, local road demand, fuel-oil economics and regional prices. South China can occasionally release export cargoes when conditions permit, but it does not represent an unlimited pool of replacement supply.
The June cargo is more useful as evidence that India’s sourcing map is being forced to broaden. When traditional supply becomes difficult to access, procurement shifts from asking which origin offers the lowest FOB price to asking which origin can actually deliver suitable material within the required project schedule.
That distinction is becoming more important because Indian demand is no longer moving in the same direction as imports. Oil ministry data show that bitumen consumption increased 8.5% year on year in July 2026, reversing the negative annual comparisons recorded during May and June. July remained seasonally weaker than June because of the monsoon, but the return to positive annual growth indicates that domestic consumption has begun to recover even though first-half imports collapsed.
This is the central tension in India’s current bitumen market: imports have fallen dramatically, but demand is showing signs of strengthening.
The decline in imports therefore cannot be explained simply by weaker road construction. Seasonal rainfall unquestionably affected paving activity during the second quarter, and monsoon conditions normally reduce bitumen consumption. But a 68% annual collapse in second-quarter imports, followed by an 8.5% annual increase in July consumption, points to a supply-side disruption that goes beyond seasonal demand weakness.
Domestic refineries have consequently become more important to the balance. India has substantial refining capacity, but high crude throughput does not automatically guarantee maximum bitumen production. Refiners decide how heavy streams, including vacuum residue, are allocated among road bitumen, fuel oil and secondary conversion processes. Product margins, refinery configuration and fuel requirements can therefore influence domestic bitumen availability independently of total crude runs.
Inventories are another unknown. Lower imports can temporarily be absorbed if distributors, refiners or contractors have sufficient stocks, but inventories can only bridge a supply deficit for a limited period. Public data do not yet provide enough visibility to determine how much of India’s first-half import contraction was offset by stock drawdowns versus higher domestic refinery supply.
This question will become more important as road activity moves beyond the main monsoon period. India’s bitumen consumption typically strengthens when weather conditions improve and delayed paving work resumes. If imports remain depressed while contractors return to active projects, buyers may need to rebuild inventories at the same time that actual road consumption rises.
Such a combination could create a much tighter procurement environment than the first-half import data alone suggest.
The supply challenge is also highly regional. India’s west coast has traditionally been well positioned to receive Middle Eastern bulk cargoes, while alternative Asian origins can involve longer voyages and different freight economics. South Korean, Singaporean, Malaysian or Chinese material may become commercially relevant when Gulf supply is constrained, but each alternative must be assessed on delivered cost rather than headline FOB price.
This is particularly important for bulk bitumen. The product requires heated and insulated vessels, and the specialized tanker fleet is significantly smaller and less flexible than the crude-oil or conventional product-tanker markets. A seller may have physical bitumen available but still struggle to find a vessel willing and able to perform the voyage at an acceptable cost.
Packaged bitumen offers more flexibility because drums and jumbo bags can use containerized or conventional cargo networks. However, packaged supply brings its own costs, including packaging, container availability, port handling and inland distribution. It can help fill selected shortages, but it is not always an economical substitute for large bulk requirements.
The 5,000-ton South China cargo illustrates precisely this new procurement logic. India is not abandoning traditional suppliers; it is adding options because reliability has become more valuable. Buyers that previously optimized primarily around Gulf pricing are increasingly forced to compare availability across a wider Asian market.
That shift could have implications for suppliers in South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and China, particularly if India enters a stronger post-monsoon buying cycle before Gulf logistics return to normal. Even relatively small alternative cargoes can affect regional trade when several Indian buyers are competing for limited spot availability.
For Gulf exporters, the risk is equally clear. A low FOB offer loses much of its commercial advantage if vessel availability, freight, insurance or route uncertainty makes the final delivered price uncompetitive. India’s first-half import collapse demonstrates that proximity to the buyer does not guarantee market access when the logistics chain is disrupted.
The next customs data will therefore be critical. July and August import volumes will show whether the first-half collapse continued, stabilized or began to reverse. Those numbers should be read alongside domestic bitumen consumption, refinery output, inventory behavior and bulk freight into Indian ports.
If imports recover while domestic demand strengthens, India could move toward a more balanced supply position. If imports remain at depressed levels while consumption continues to rise, the market could enter the post-monsoon paving period with a significantly tighter physical balance.
The most important signal from the first half is therefore not simply that India imported less bitumen. It is that the decline became progressively deeper, eventually forcing buyers to reach farther across Asia for replacement cargoes.
A market that imported 1.81 million tons in the first six months of 2025 received only about 905,000 tons during the same period of 2026. Yet domestic consumption has already returned to positive annual growth. That divergence turns India’s supply question from a temporary shipping problem into one of the most important issues facing the Asian bitumen market in the second half of 2026.
By WPB
News, Bitumen, India, Bitumen Imports, Petroleum Bitumen, Road Construction, China, Shipping, Refining, Vacuum Residue, Freight, Asphalt Market
