90号道路石油沥青 · Bitumen 90# for Chinese Road Projects
摘要 · Summary
The whole page in one paragraph, first in Chinese and then in English.
90号道路石油沥青按JTG F40-2004分级，针入度80–100（0.1mm），A级软化点≥45 °C，闪点≥245 °C，溶解度≥99.5 %，15 °C延度≥100 cm，蜡含量≤2.2 %，老化后残留针入度比≥57 %。牌号数字是名义针入度，70号与90号的选择由冬季低温分区决定。
90# road petroleum asphalt is graded under JTG F40-2004 with a penetration band of 80–100 (0.1 mm). For A级 the softening point is minimum 45 °C, flash point minimum 245 °C, solubility minimum 99.5 %, ductility at 15 °C minimum 100 cm, wax content maximum 2.2 % and the retained penetration ratio after ageing minimum 57 %. In the grade name, 90 is the nominal penetration sitting at the centre of that band rather than at either end of it. The choice between 70# and 90# is settled by the winter low-temperature digit of the climate zone code, not by preference.
90号的含义 · What the 90# designation actually means
The number in a Chinese grade name is the nominal penetration (名义针入度) and the acceptance band sits either side of it. This differs from the ASTM convention in a way that costs buyers money every year.
Road petroleum asphalt (道路石油沥青) takes its Chinese grade name from a single number followed by a hash, under JTG F40-2004《公路沥青路面施工技术规范》 — the Ministry of Transport specification governing highway asphalt pavement construction. 90# covers penetration 80 to 100 in tenths of a millimetre, measured at 25 °C with a 100 g load for 5 seconds to method T 0604 of JTG E20-2011《公路工程沥青及沥青混合料试验规程》. The figure 90 is the nominal centre of that band. It is not a limit, and no cargo has to test at 90.
This is the single most common misunderstanding in China-facing bitumen trade, and it is worth stating without hedging. In the ASTM convention, the two numbers are the band: 60/70 means penetration 60 to 70 dmm and nothing else. In the Chinese convention, the one number is the midpoint: 70# means 60 to 80, 90# means 80 to 100. A trader who reads 90# as “penetration 90” and offers a binder tested at 88 dmm as out of grade has refused a compliant cargo. A trader who reads 90# as equivalent to a band of 90 to 100 has narrowed the specification by half for no reason.
两个标准，不要混淆 · Two standards, routinely confused
A 90# enquiry can be written against either of two separate documents, and quoting the wrong one is the second most common failure after misreading the number itself:
- JTG F40-2004 — a Ministry of Transport construction specification for highway pavement. Its 道路石油沥青 series runs 160#, 130#, 110#, 90#, 70#, 50# and 30#, and each of those grades is further divided into quality classes A, B and C.
- GB/T 15180《重交通道路石油沥青》 — a national product standard for heavy-traffic road petroleum asphalt. It designates grades with an AH- prefix: AH-130, AH-110, AH-90, AH-70, AH-50 and AH-30.
The distinction between a construction specification and a product standard is not pedantry. One tells a contractor how to build a pavement and what binder is acceptable in it; the other defines a product a refinery may sell. They are issued by different bodies and they are not editions of one another.
The two standards cover overlapping penetration positions but they are not the same acceptance table. As one concrete example, JTG F40-2004 requires solubility of minimum 99.5 % for 70#, while GB/T 15180 accepts minimum 99.0 % for AH-70. A contract that says only “90#” is incomplete. Write either 90号A级，符合JTG F40-2004 or AH-90，符合GB/T 15180, and let the Certificate of Analysis report against that same table.
中国牌号梯度 · The Chinese hardness ladder
Penetration and hardness move in opposite directions, so the grade number rises as the binder softens:
- 30# — penetration 20–40; softening point minimum 55 °C, flash point minimum 260 °C. Very hard, heavy-duty and high-modulus work.
- 50# — penetration 40–60; softening point minimum 49 °C (A级), flash point minimum 260 °C. Hot regions and heavily loaded corridors.
- 70# — penetration 60–80; softening point minimum 46 °C (A级), flash point minimum 260 °C. The most widely used Chinese paving grade.
- 90# — penetration 80–100; softening point minimum 45 °C (A级), flash point minimum 245 °C. The subject of this page.
- 110# — penetration 100–120; softening point minimum 43 °C (A级), flash point minimum 230 °C. Cold northern regions.
- 130# — penetration 120–140; flash point minimum 230 °C. Colder still, and more specialised.
The series continues to 160#, which is rarely traded internationally. Note that the bands touch rather than overlap: 70# ends at 80 and 90# begins at 80. A binder measuring exactly 80 dmm sits on the boundary of both, and the rest of the acceptance table — softening point, penetration index, retained penetration after ageing — is what actually separates the two grades in that case. In practice a batch is offered as one grade and is judged against that grade’s complete table, not against the penetration line alone.
A级、B级、C级 · The quality classes
The A/B/C classification is a China-specific concept with no ASTM equivalent, and it is the part of the Chinese system that foreign suppliers most often overlook. The class does not change the penetration band. 90# is 80–100 whether it is A级, B级 or C级. A class is instead a statement about how tightly the supporting properties are held: wax content (蜡含量), ductility at 10 °C, the penetration index (针入度指数) and what the residue must still deliver after ageing. Those are the lines that move.
- A级 — the top class. It is available across every grade in the series and may be laid in any pavement layer.
- B级 — acceptable in the lower layers of expressways and class-1 highways, and throughout every layer of highways below that class.
- C级 — restricted to class-2 highways and below.
The commercial consequence is direct. An offer that says “90# meeting penetration 80–100” says almost nothing about whether the cargo can be laid on the job. The buyer’s design documents will name a class, and the class is where the wax and ageing limits live.
90号A级技术要求 · JTG F40-2004 acceptance table for 90# A级
The values below are the JTG F40-2004 requirements for 90# class A, with the JTG E20-2011 test method that produces each one. Test methods are cited in their Chinese form because that is the form a Chinese laboratory report will carry.
| 项目 Property | 试验方法 Test method | 单位 Unit | 指标 Requirement (A级) | 说明 Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 针入度 Penetration, 25 °C, 100 g, 5 s | T 0604 | 0.1 mm | 80–100 | The grade-defining line. 90 is the nominal value, not a limit. |
| 针入度指数 Penetration index, PI | T 0604, calculated | — | -1.5 to +1.0 | A two-sided limit on how sharply consistency changes with temperature. Seldom appears on a Middle East export COA unless it has been asked for in advance. |
| 软化点 Softening point, ring & ball | T 0606 | °C | ≥ 45 | One degree below the 46 °C required of 70# A级. |
| 15 °C 延度 Ductility at 15 °C | T 0605 | cm | ≥ 100 | Chinese ductility is specified at 15 °C, not the 25 °C usual on Middle East export data sheets. |
| 蜡含量 Wax content, distillation method | T 0615 | % | ≤ 2.2 | A级 limit. B级 allows 3.0 % and C级 allows 4.5 %. |
| 闪点 Flash point, Cleveland open cup | T 0611 | °C | ≥ 245 | 15 °C lower than the 260 °C required of 70#. |
| 溶解度 Solubility in trichloroethylene | T 0607 | % | ≥ 99.5 | Tighter than the 99.0 % quoted on most Middle East export data sheets. |
| 密度 Density at 15 °C | T 0603 | g/cm³ | 实测记录 report actual value | No pass or fail limit — the measured figure is recorded, and it is what converts a contracted tonnage into a volume. |
| TFOT 或 RTFOT 后质量变化 Mass change after ageing | T 0609 / T 0610 | % | ±0.8 (max) | A two-sided limit: loss of volatiles in one direction, oxidative gain in the other. Ageing is run on a thin film at 163 °C to stand in for the mixing plant. |
| 残留针入度比 Retained penetration ratio, 25 °C | T 0604 on the aged residue | % | ≥ 57 | A级 limit. 70# A级 requires 61 %. See the ageing section below. |
气候分区与70号/90号的选择 · Climate zone and the 70#/90# decision
In Chinese practice the grade is not chosen by the contractor’s preference or by what is cheapest on the day. It falls out of a three-part climate zone code, and 90# exists because of the second digit.
JTG F40 assigns each location a bitumen performance climate zone (气候分区) written as a three-part code such as 1-4-1 or 2-2-2. Each digit is derived from a different meteorological statistic:
- First digit — summer high-temperature zone (夏季高温分区), from the mean maximum air temperature of the hottest month. 1: above 30 °C. 2: 20 to 30 °C. 3: below 20 °C.
- Second digit — winter low-temperature zone (冬季低温分区), taken from the extreme minimum air temperature on record. 1: below -37 °C. 2: -37 to -21.5 °C. 3: -21.5 to -9 °C. 4: above -9 °C. This is the digit that puts 90# on the page.
- Third digit — rainfall zone (雨量分区). 1: humid, above 1000 mm. 2: moist, 500 to 1000 mm. 3: semi-arid, 250 to 500 mm. 4: arid, below 250 mm.
Read left to right, a code of 1-4-1 describes somewhere with hot summers, mild winters and heavy rainfall. A code of 2-2-2 describes moderate summers, severe winters and moderate rainfall. Note that the low-temperature digit runs the opposite way to intuition: a lower second digit means a colder winter.
哪一位数字决定牌号 · Which digit decides between 70# and 90#
70# and 90# guard against opposite failure modes. 70# is the stiffer binder and its value is resistance to rutting and shoving when the pavement is hot and the traffic is heavy. 90# is the softer binder and its value is that it stays compliant enough at low service temperature to relieve thermal stress instead of cracking. You cannot have both from an unmodified penetration grade — that is the whole trade-off.
So the decision follows the zone code in this order. Where the summer high-temperature digit is 1 and the winter low-temperature digit is 3 or 4, summer rutting is the governing distress and the answer is 70# or harder. Where the winter low-temperature digit is 1 or 2 — extreme minimum air temperatures below about -21.5 °C — low-temperature cracking becomes the distress that decides the life of the pavement, and the softer grade is the one that protects against it. 90# is the standard answer in that situation, which is why it is the second most traded Chinese grade and why demand for it is concentrated in the north.
The third digit does not change the grade number. Rainfall governs moisture damage countermeasures — anti-stripping treatment, hydrated lime, aggregate selection and drainage design — not the penetration band of the binder. If a supplier justifies pushing 90# on the grounds that the region is wet, that argument has no basis in JTG F40 and should be treated as a sales line rather than a specification reading.
冲突的分区 · When the zone pulls in both directions
Some regions carry a hot summer digit and a severe winter digit at the same time, with a wide seasonal and diurnal temperature range. In that case neither 70# nor 90# is fully adequate on its own: choosing 70# accepts a winter cracking risk, and choosing 90# accepts a summer rutting risk. This is precisely the condition that pushes Chinese design practice towards a polymer-modified binder, or towards a design justified by measured low-temperature and high-temperature performance rather than by a penetration grade name. An honest supplier says so rather than selling a grade into a zone it cannot serve.
不要凭城市名指定分区 · Do not assign a zone from a city name
This page deliberately does not reproduce a zone-to-grade recommendation table or a list of cities and their codes. A project’s zone code is derived from meteorological records and settled in the design institute’s documents; it is the specifying engineer’s call, and a supplier who volunteers one is guessing. What can be said qualitatively and safely is that north-east China and northern Inner Mongolia sit in the coldest winter low-temperature zones, that the far south is a high-temperature humid environment, and that the arid north-west interior combines low rainfall with a very wide temperature range. Anything more precise than that belongs in the project documents.
90号实际用在哪里 · Where 90# actually goes
Within the cooler and northern regions, 90# is used for conventional hot mix asphalt in surface, binder and base courses, for provincial and county road construction, for surface treatment and seal work where workability at lower ambient temperature matters, and as the base binder for emulsion and cutback production where a softer base is wanted. Chinese practice also commonly uses 90# as the base grade for SBS-modified binder intended for cold zones, though in that case the base grade is fixed by the modified-binder specification rather than chosen freely. What 90# should not be used for is a hot-summer corridor carrying heavy freight: put a soft binder there and the pavement will rut, whatever the price advantage was at the time of purchase.
Working temperatures follow the same logic. A 90# binder is mixed and compacted at somewhat lower temperatures than a 70# from the same source, because it reaches the same working viscosity sooner. The actual figures belong to the mix design and to the viscosity–temperature relationship measured for that specific binder, so they should be taken from the project documents and the supplier data sheet rather than from a generic table.
70号还是90号 · 70# versus 90# on the acceptance table
Both grades are JTG F40-2004 road petroleum asphalt and both are shown here at class A. Read the last column first: several lines are identical between the grades, so they cannot be the reason to choose one over the other.
| 项目 Item | 70号 · 70# (A级) | 90号 · 90# (A级) | 选型含义 What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 针入度 Penetration, 0.1 mm | 60–80 | 80–100 | 90# is the softer binder. This is the only line that defines the grade. |
| 软化点 Softening point, °C | ≥ 46 | ≥ 45 | One degree apart on paper. The real difference between the grades is consistency at 25 °C, not the softening point limit. |
| 闪点 Flash point, °C | ≥ 260 | ≥ 245 | Consistent with a softer, lighter-fraction binder. Both limits sit far above any normal working temperature, but the storage ceiling and the SDS entry differ. |
| 溶解度 Solubility, % | ≥ 99.5 | ≥ 99.5 | Identical. Not a differentiator — and tighter than most export data sheets quote. |
| 15 °C 延度 Ductility at 15 °C, cm | ≥ 100 | ≥ 100 | Identical. A binder passing at 25 °C has not been shown to pass at 15 °C. |
| 蜡含量 Wax content, % | ≤ 2.2 | ≤ 2.2 | Identical. Wax is set by the class (A/B/C), not by the grade. |
| TFOT/RTFOT 质量变化 Mass change, % | ±0.8 | ±0.8 | Identical. The ageing exposure is the same for both grades. |
| 残留针入度比 Retained penetration ratio, % | ≥ 61 | ≥ 57 | The softer grade is allowed to lose proportionally more, because in absolute terms it still ends up softer. |
| 主要防护的破坏形式 Distress guarded against | 高温车辙与推移 · Rutting and shoving in summer | 低温收缩开裂 · Thermal cracking in winter | The two grades protect against opposite failure modes. |
| 决定牌号的分区数字 Deciding zone digit | 第一位 · First digit, summer high temperature | 第二位 · Second digit, winter low temperature | Read the climate zone code before reading the price list. |
90号与国际牌号对照 · 90# against ASTM, EN and GB/T designations
Buyers regularly need to show a Chinese engineer that material offered under an export designation lands in the right place, or to explain to a refinery what 90# means. These are nearest counterparts, and the comment column is the part that matters.
| 体系 System | 标准 Standard | 最接近的牌号 Nearest grade | 针入度 Penetration, 0.1 mm | 说明 Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 中国 China | JTG F40-2004 道路石油沥青 | 90# | 80–100 | The grade this page covers. Naming the grade settles only the penetration band; A级, B级 or C级 has to be written alongside it, because the number carries no class with it. |
| 中国 China | GB/T 15180 重交通道路石油沥青 | AH-90 | 见标准 · not restated here | A different standard with its own acceptance table, not a synonym for 90#. The AH- series occupies the nominal position its number names, but this page does not reproduce the AH-90 limits, because an assumed figure is worse than none. For AH-70 the standard allows solubility 99.0 %, wax 3.0 %, mass change ±0.6 % and softening point 44–54 °C, where JTG F40-2004 requires 99.5 %, 2.2 % and ±0.8 % for 70# A级 — enough difference to show the two tables are not interchangeable. Read the AH-90 table in the standard itself before quoting against it. |
| 美国 United States | ASTM D946 | 85–100 | 85–100 | The D946 grade nearest to 90#. Its band sits entirely inside 80–100, so a compliant 85/100 is inside the 90# penetration band. The reverse does not hold: material at 82 dmm satisfies 90# and fails 85/100. |
| 出口商业牌号 Export designation | not a grade named in ASTM D946 | 80/100 | 80–100 | Identical penetration band to 90#, and the source of most confusion. 80/100 is a commercial designation quoted on refinery data sheets across the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Matching the band does not make the cargo a 90# cargo. |
| 欧洲 Europe | EN 12591 | 70/100 | 70–100 | A wider band that straddles 70# and 90#. It carries a softening point requirement of 43–51 °C, and where the national annex requires it, a Fraass breaking point limit that JTG F40 does not use. |
| 印度 India | IS 73:2013 | VG-20 | not defined by penetration | Viscosity-graded at 60 °C. Comparison only — a VG-20 certificate is not evidence of a 90# acceptance, because the defining property was never measured. |
残留针入度比与蜡含量 · Retained penetration ratio and wax content
Two lines on the 90# table decide whether Middle East supply can serve this grade at all: the retained penetration ratio after ageing, and the wax content limit.
老化试验做了什么 · What the ageing test does
The thin film oven test (T 0609) and the rolling thin film oven test (T 0610) age a thin film of binder at 163 °C to simulate the hardening that occurs during hot mixing at the plant. Two things are measured afterwards. The first is mass change, limited to ±0.8 % — this catches excessive loss of volatiles and, in the other direction, mass gain from oxidation. The second is that penetration at 25 °C is re-run on the aged residue to method T 0604 and expressed as a percentage of the original value. That percentage is the retained penetration ratio (残留针入度比).
为什么90号是57 % · Why 90# is allowed 57 % where 70# must hold 61 %
Across the JTG F40-2004 class A grades the requirement loosens steadily as the binder softens: 63 % for 50#, 61 % for 70#, 57 % for 90#, 54 % for 110#. Read out of context this looks like softer grades being held to a lower standard. They are not, and there are two reasons.
The first is arithmetic, and it is the one that settles the argument. A 70# starting at 60–80 dmm and retaining 61 % lands at roughly 37–49 dmm after ageing. A 90# starting at 80–100 dmm and retaining 57 % lands at roughly 46–57 dmm. The softer grade is still meaningfully softer after ageing than the harder grade is — which is exactly what the cold-zone design intended when 90# was specified. The percentage relaxes but the absolute residual consistency, the thing that resists thermal cracking in service, remains ahead.
The second reason is compositional. Softer paving grades come from a less severely processed vacuum residue and carry a larger proportion of lighter maltene fractions. Spread as a thin film at 163 °C, that material loses proportionally more of what makes it soft than a stiffer residue does. Holding every grade to the same percentage would penalise the softer grades for a behaviour that is inherent to their composition rather than a defect in a particular batch.
为什么这条线对90号更重要 · Why the line matters more here than on 70#
90# is bought for one property: it stays flexible when the pavement is cold. If the binder hardens excessively in the mixing plant, the pavement is delivered stiffer than the design assumed and the reason for choosing 90# has been lost before the road opens to traffic. The retained penetration ratio is the line that protects the design intent, and it deserves more scrutiny on a 90# COA than on a 70# COA, not less.
出口数据表上的同一性质 · The same property on an export data sheet
Middle East export data sheets usually express ageing the other way round, as a maximum drop in penetration (针入度降低) after the thin film oven test — often stated as a maximum of 20 %. The two forms are complements of each other: retained percentage equals 100 minus the drop percentage, so a maximum 20 % drop implies a minimum 80 % retained, which clears 57 % comfortably. What it does not do is discharge the obligation. The value must be measured under the ageing procedure the contract names and reported in the Chinese form on the Certificate of Analysis, because that is the form the receiving laboratory and the site engineer will compare against.
蜡含量 · Wax content, and the honest version of the problem
Wax content (蜡含量) is measured by the distillation method T 0615, and the class limits are 2.2 % for A级, 3.0 % for B级 and 4.5 % for C级. This is where most Middle East material meets its real obstacle in the Chinese market, and the point is worth making plainly rather than avoiding.
China is largely self-sufficient in bitumen from domestic refining. Imports serve coastal demand, quality arbitrage and specific project requirements — the market does not depend on them. What sets the domestic quality benchmark is the crude slate: Chinese binder is largely produced from naphthenic crudes, and naphthenic residue is naturally low in wax. A great many Middle East crudes run more paraffinic, and paraffinic residue carries more wax into the finished binder. That single compositional difference is the largest technical barrier to Middle East bitumen entering a Chinese A级 acceptance, and no commercial argument makes it go away.
For 90# the problem compounds. High wax content depresses low-temperature ductility and can weaken adhesion to aggregate — the properties that a cold-zone project bought 90# for in the first place. The grade that is most needed where winters are severe is the grade where wax hurts most.
The workable procedure is straightforward. Measure wax content to T 0615 on the actual material before making any offer, not after the cargo is at anchor. A caution on methods: EN 12606-1 is also a distillation determination, but its procedure differs from T 0615 in detail, and the two do not return interchangeable numbers. Report the figure under the method the contract names rather than converting one into the other. If the measured wax exceeds 2.2 %, the honest conversation is about B级 applications where 3.0 % is permitted, or about a different sourcing route — not about relabelling the same cargo.
针入度指数与延度温度 · Two more lines that catch exporters out
The penetration index (针入度指数) must fall between -1.5 and +1.0. It is calculated from penetration measured at more than one temperature and it bounds temperature susceptibility in both directions: a binder that is unusually sensitive to temperature change fails it regardless of how good its 25 °C penetration looks. Most Middle East export certificates do not report PI at all, so it has to be requested as part of the pre-shipment test schedule rather than discovered as a gap at destination. And ductility is specified at 15 °C, not the 25 °C that appears on most export data sheets. A binder comfortably above 100 cm at 25 °C has not been shown to reach 100 cm at 15 °C; that is a separate test and it must actually be run.
从询价到清关 · From RFQ to customs clearance
The sequence below is ordered the way the risk actually arrives. The expensive mistakes on a China-bound 90# cargo happen in the first two steps, not at the port.
确认牌号、等级与标准 · Fix the grade, class and standard
Write the designation out in full in the contract: 90号A级 符合JTG F40-2004, or AH-90 符合GB/T 15180. “90#” on its own leaves the specification open, because everything that separates an acceptable cargo from a rejected one — the wax ceiling, the ductility temperature, the ageing residue — lives in the class and in the choice of standard, not in the number. Then ask the buyer for the climate zone assignment out of the project design documents and confirm that those documents actually call for 90# rather than 70#.
在报价前先测蜡含量和PI · Get wax and PI measured before you quote
Two determinations decide whether an A级 acceptance is realistic at all, and both must be run on the material genuinely on offer rather than on a historic typical-value sheet: wax content by T 0615, and the penetration index calculated from penetration readings taken at more than one temperature. Neither routinely appears on a Middle East export certificate, so both have to be commissioned. Discovering the answer after the cargo is loaded turns a laboratory question into a demurrage and rejection problem.
选择包装并考虑北方冬季到港 · Choose packing with a northern winter arrival in mind
Indicative loading for drummed material: 80 new steel drums per 20 ft FCL, giving 12 MT at 150 kg per drum, 14.4 MT at 180 kg and 14.8 MT at 185 kg. Bagged material in 1 MT jumbo or poly bags fills the same box with 20 bags at 20 MT; a bitutainer sits in the 20 to 25 MT range. Confirm the final figures against the actual drum dimensions, the container type and any destination axle or weight restriction rather than treating them as fixed. What is particular to 90# is the destination: this grade goes north, and a drum loaded in a Gulf summer may be stripped in a Chinese winter. Agree how the consignee will handle and warm the packing at that end, and specify new drums in the contract, because reconditioned drums carry residues that show up as a contamination claim on arrival.
装船前检验与批次COA · Pre-shipment inspection and a batch-specific COA
Insist that the certificate belongs to the batch being shipped and that it reports line by line against whichever table the contract names — carrying the JTG E20-2011 method numbers wherever that contract is written to JTG F40-2004, not ASTM designations substituted for them. Two lines deserve particular attention on a 90# certificate. The first is the lower penetration boundary: a batch certified at 80 to 83 dmm sits on the very edge of the band, and because penetration drifts downward with storage and handling, a certificate issued weeks before loading can describe material that no longer tests inside 80–100 on arrival. Test close to loading. The second is the retained penetration ratio, which on this grade is the line that protects the entire reason 90# was specified. Have retained samples sealed in the inspector’s presence and held by both parties, drawn across the load rather than from whichever drums stand nearest the container door.
简体中文安全数据表 · A Simplified Chinese safety data sheet
Three things have to be true of the sheet at once: the layout follows GB/T 16483, the hazard classification is worked under the GB 30000 series implementing GHS, and the language is Simplified Chinese. An English-only sheet prepared to another jurisdiction’s format is not a compliant document here. One detail specific to this grade: 90# has a flash point requirement of minimum 245 °C against 260 °C for 70#, so an SDS whose flash point entry has been carried across from a harder grade’s template misstates the product. The sheet must carry the measured value for the material actually shipped.
归类与税费 · Classification and taxes
Classification does not follow the penetration grade — a 90# entry and a 70# entry declare identically — so the work here is confirming the subheading, not arguing the grade. Petroleum bitumen sits under HS heading 2713.20 (石油沥青), and the full national subheading should be confirmed with a licensed customs broker before shipment. Import VAT on goods is 13 %. No import duty rate is quoted on this page and none should be taken from a secondary source: it has to be confirmed against the current tariff schedule for the specific subheading and the country of origin. One further point that still catches importers out — customs and inspection functions merged in 2018, and the former CIQ role now sits with GACC (中国海关总署), so any checklist or agent still treating CIQ as a separate agency is working from out-of-date guidance.
运输状态与现场安全 · Carriage condition and site safety
The dangerous-goods determination turns on how the cargo travels, not on how soft it is: being a softer grade than 70# changes nothing here. Solid packed bitumen in drums or bags is generally not handled as a dangerous good, while bitumen carried at or above 100 °C is UN 3257, Class 9. State the carriage condition on the documents rather than making a blanket claim in either direction. On site, treat hot bitumen burns by cooling with clean cold running water for at least 20 minutes, and never peel or solvent-strip adhered bitumen from skin — removal is a job for medical staff.
常见问题 · Frequently asked questions about 90#
90号沥青是什么意思？What does 90# mean?
90# is a road petroleum asphalt grade (道路石油沥青) under JTG F40-2004 covering penetration 80 to 100 in tenths of a millimetre, measured at 25 °C with a 100 g needle for 5 seconds to method T 0604. The number 90 is the nominal penetration at the centre of the band, not an end of it. This is the opposite of the ASTM convention, where 60/70 means the band runs from 60 to 70.
90号和ASTM 80/100、85/100一样吗？Is 90# the same as ASTM 80/100 or 85/100?
Not automatically. 80/100 shares the same penetration band as 90#, but it is a commercial export designation rather than a grade named in ASTM D946, and matching the band is only the first requirement. 85/100 is the ASTM D946 grade and its band sits entirely inside 80–100, so a compliant 85/100 is inside the 90# penetration band while the reverse is not true — material at 82 dmm passes 90# and fails 85/100. To be accepted as 90#, either would still have to meet the penetration index, wax content by T 0615, ductility at 15 °C, solubility of 99.5 % and retained penetration ratio of 57 %.
什么时候用90号而不是70号？When should I use 90# instead of 70#?
When the winter low-temperature digit of the JTG F40 climate zone code governs the design — that is, where extreme minimum air temperatures make thermal cracking the distress that decides pavement life rather than summer rutting. 70# is the stiffer binder and protects against rutting; 90# stays flexible at low service temperature. The zone assignment comes from the project design documents, not from a supplier’s judgement.
为什么90号的残留针入度比只要求57 %？Why is the retained penetration ratio only 57 % for 90#?
Because the percentage is relative to a softer starting point. A 90# starting at 80–100 dmm and retaining 57 % lands around 46–57 dmm after ageing, while a 70# retaining its required 61 % from 60–80 dmm lands around 37–49 dmm. The softer grade is still softer in absolute terms, which is what the cold-zone design wanted. Softer grades also carry more light maltene fraction and lose proportionally more of it in a thin film at 163 °C. The requirement falls steadily across the series: 63 % for 50#, 61 % for 70#, 57 % for 90# and 54 % for 110# at class A.
A级、B级、C级有什么区别？What is the difference between classes A, B and C?
The class does not change penetration — 90# is 80–100 in every class. It changes the supporting limits: wax content (2.2 % for A级, 3.0 % for B级, 4.5 % for C级), ductility at 10 °C, penetration index and the residue requirements after ageing. A级 is permitted for all grades and all pavement layers, B级 for the lower layers of expressways and class-1 highways and for all layers of lower classes, and C级 for class-2 highways and below. This concept has no ASTM equivalent, so it is the part most often missed in an export offer.
中东沥青能满足90号A级吗？Can Middle East bitumen meet 90# A级?
It depends almost entirely on wax content. Chinese refining runs largely on naphthenic crude slates, whose residue is inherently low in wax, and that is what the domestic acceptance level was built around; a good deal of Middle East crude is more paraffinic and yields binder carrying more wax. The A级 limit is 2.2 % by the distillation method T 0615. Measure the actual material to T 0615 before offering. If it exceeds 2.2 %, the realistic route is a B级 application at 3.0 % or a different sourcing decision — not a relabelled cargo. High wax also depresses low-temperature ductility, which is the property a 90# project is buying.
90号沥青怎么包装运到中国北方？How should 90# be packed for shipment to northern China?
Drummed material loads at roughly 80 new steel drums per 20 ft FCL — about 12 MT at 150 kg per drum, 14.4 MT at 180 kg and 14.8 MT at 185 kg. One-tonne jumbo or poly bags work out at 20 bags for 20 MT in the same box, while a bitutainer holds somewhere between 20 and 25 MT. Treat those as indicative and confirm them against the drum dimensions, container type and destination weight limits that actually apply. The consideration peculiar to 90# is that its destination is usually a cold-region project, so packing loaded in a hot climate is often opened in a cold one: agree in advance how the consignee will store and warm the material, and write new drums into the contract, since reconditioned drums are a recurring source of contamination claims.
90号的HS编码和危险品分类是什么？What is the HS code for 90#, and is it a dangerous good?
The penetration grade does not affect classification — 90# declares exactly as 70# or 50# does. Petroleum bitumen (石油沥青) falls under HS heading 2713.20, and the full national subheading should be confirmed with a licensed customs broker for the specific origin. Import VAT on goods is 13 %. This page states no duty rate, and none should be assumed from a secondary source; it must be checked against the current tariff schedule for that subheading and origin. Note that the customs and inspection functions were merged in 2018 and the former CIQ role now sits with GACC (中国海关总署), so older checklists naming CIQ as a separate agency are out of date. As for dangerous goods, the answer depends on carriage condition rather than on the grade: solid packed bitumen is generally not handled as a dangerous good, whereas bitumen carried at or above 100 °C is UN 3257, Class 9.
询价90号道路石油沥青 · Request a Bitumen 90# quotation
Send the grade and class (90号A级 or B级), the governing standard, quantity, packing, destination port and Incoterm. If you hold the project specification or the climate zone assignment, send that too — the offer will be checked line by line against it, and any line that cannot be met, wax content included, will be stated openly before pricing rather than discovered at destination. Contact is WhatsApp only, +971 56 144 5733.