Enquiry
Give grade, quantity, packing, destination port and Incoterm. The decision that matters: send the project specification if one exists, so any gap surfaces now rather than after loading.
Buyers often discover late that the party they negotiated with is not the party that controls the cargo. Establishing this early changes what you should require.
Four kinds of counterparty appear in bitumen export, and the differences matter more than the marketing language suggests:
Ask directly: are you the producer, are you buying and reselling, or are you introducing me to someone else? There is no wrong answer, and the answer changes what you should require. If the counterparty does not control production, then the batch Certificate of Analysis, the inspection arrangement and the payment structure carry the entire weight of your protection — which is a reason to specify all three tightly, not a reason to walk away.
Match your requirements to what the party in front of you actually controls.
| Type | Controls production | Controls documents | Carries cargo risk | What to require |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Producer / refinery | Yes | Usually | Yes | Batch COA from their own laboratory; confirm they can handle your destination's documentation |
| Trading house | No | Yes | Yes | Batch COA plus independent inspection at load port; confirm packing is specified as new |
| Broker / intermediary | No | No | No | Written confirmation of who the contracting seller is, and contract directly with that party |
| Agent | No | Sometimes | Sometimes | Written confirmation of mandate and of which principal is contractually bound |
Supplier websites converge on the same vocabulary, so the words are no help at all. Four things genuinely vary between one counterparty and the next, and every one of them can be tested in writing before any money moves.
Price is not one of the four. Price is mostly the market, and where it is not the market it is usually a difference in what is being quoted rather than a difference in the seller — a different packing, a different Incoterms rule, inspection left out of one offer, or a net weight quietly stated as gross. That is a comparison problem rather than a supplier problem, and the price factors page takes the cost stack apart line by line. What follows is the part that is genuinely about the counterparty.
Proximity means how many hands sit between the person answering your message and the tank the binder came out of. It is not the same as being a refinery. A trading house that has packed that grade in that packing on that route for years can be closer to your particular cargo than a producer who has never shipped to your destination, and a broker three steps away can be further from it than either.
Proximity shows up in the specifics somebody volunteers without being asked. Someone close to the material knows the tare of the drums their line fills — roughly 18 to 22 kg for a new steel drum — and knows whether those drums are air-cooled or water-cooled and how long they stand before they are closed and stuffed. They know that 80 drums per 20-foot container is a geometry limit rather than a weight limit, so the count does not change when the fill goes from 150 kg to 185 kg. They can have a sample drawn from an actual lot instead of forwarding a data sheet. Distance shows up as everything being routed onward: we will confirm with the refinery, applied even to questions about their own packing operation.
Two things follow commercially. First, proximity decides whether a problem at the load point can be fixed or only argued about. Drums of the wrong gauge, a batch from an older run, marks missing from the steel — all of that is correctable in the hours before a container is sealed and expensive afterwards, and only somebody close to the operation can act in that window. Second, every additional undisclosed hand is both a margin and a retelling. The answer you receive about a batch has passed through as many people as there are intermediaries, and technical detail does not survive that journey intact.
Intermediaries are legitimate and the trade runs on them. The problem is never that somebody is an intermediary; it is an intermediary who conceals it, because concealment is what stops you knowing how many hands and how many margins sit between you and the tank.
This is the cheapest filter available in the trade and it costs one message. Ask something with a right answer, in a field where the right answer is published, and read the reply rather than the tone.
The published answer is not the only good answer. I do not know, I will take it from the batch record and send it to you in writing is a good answer, and often a better sign than a confident number with no method attached. What is not a good answer is a brochure, a technical data sheet attached in place of a reply, or a value quoted with no test method beside it. The full cross-reference of methods across the ASTM, EN and IS systems is on the test methods page, and the limits themselves on the specifications page, so these questions can be marked as easily as they can be asked.
Three documents describe the same material, written at different times by different people: the offer, the specification schedule attached to the contract, and the batch Certificate of Analysis. Suppliers differ enormously in whether those three line up, and the gap between them is where specification drift lives.
What each one should carry:
The failure is drift between them, and it is usually accidental rather than dishonest. An offer written against ASTM D946, a contract schedule copied from an export data sheet, and a certificate reporting whichever lines the laboratory happened to run. Those are not the same specification. A cargo can satisfy ASTM D946 on flash point and retained penetration and still breach a data sheet that asks for 250 °C and a maximum 20 % penetration drop. It can also satisfy the data sheet and say nothing at all about ductility, which ASTM D946 sets at a minimum of 100 cm for grade 60-70 by ASTM D113.
The decision rule is short. Name one document as the acceptance criterion, and require the certificate to report every line in it, by method. Then conformity is arithmetic rather than argument. While you are there, settle two further things: that the grade name marked on the drums is the same grade name used in the contract — a drum marked in one standard system against a contract written in another is a question worth asking before payment, and the grade equivalence page explains why the two names are not interchangeable — and what the remedy is when a result falls outside a limit. Rejection, a price adjustment on a stated scale, or replacement, and who pays for the retest. A supplier who has a considered answer to the remedy question has been through this before.
This one is pure arithmetic, and it is the fastest way to tell an offer written by someone who ships this cargo from an offer assembled out of a template.
The packing check. Multiply the unit count by the net weight and see whether it equals the quoted tonnage. The site standard figures are 80 drums per 20-foot container at any drum fill, giving 12 MT at 150 kg, 14.4 MT at 180 kg and 14.8 MT at 185 kg; one-tonne bags load 20 per container for 20 MT. If the tonnage in an offer does not reconcile with the unit count and the net weight, one of the three numbers is wrong, and it is normally the one you will be invoiced on.
The tare check. Net weight is product. Drum tare is steel. At roughly 18 to 22 kg per new drum, 80 drums of 185 kg net is about 14.8 t of bitumen carrying about 1.6 t of steel, and adding a 20-foot container tare of roughly 2.2 t puts the verified gross mass declared under SOLAS Chapter VI Regulation 2 near 18.6 t. An offer that quotes net, tare and verified gross mass, and has all three reconcile, was written by somebody who has stuffed a container. An offer that uses net and gross interchangeably has not been checked by anyone.
The Incoterm check. Exactly one rule, taken from Incoterms 2020, with a named port or place, reading identically in the offer, the contract, the credit and the invoice. The recurring failures are worth listing because each one is visible on a single page:
None of these four checks requires knowledge of the market. They require a calculator, a copy of the Incoterms 2020 rules and one careful read. The Incoterms page works through each rule as it applies to bitumen specifically, and the tonnage and volume page covers the weight and volume arithmetic in full.
Every one of these can be sent in a single message before a contract exists, and every one has an answer you can mark. The point is not to catch anyone out; it is to establish how far the person answering sits from the material you are buying.
| The test | How to run it in one message | What proximity to the product sounds like | What distance sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|
| A method question with a right answer | Which method and limit govern flash point on your 60/70? | Cleveland open cup, ASTM D92. ASTM D946 requires a minimum of 232 °C for grade 60-70, and the 250 °C on most export data sheets is commercial practice rather than a requirement of the standard | A data sheet attached in place of a reply, or a number quoted with no test method beside it |
| A question about their own packing line | What is the tare of the drums you fill, and how are they cooled before stuffing? | A tare in the region of 18 to 22 kg for a new steel drum, and a description of air or water cooling with a standing time before drums are closed and loaded | The question is routed onward, which means the packing operation belongs to somebody else |
| Batch traceability | Send a recent Certificate of Analysis for this grade with the batch number left on it | A dated report carrying a batch number, a sampling date, test dates separate from the issue date, and the test method beside every value | A generic technical data sheet, or a certificate with the batch field blank and every value sitting exactly on a specification limit |
| Packing arithmetic | How many 185 kg drums load into a 20-foot container, what is the net tonnage, and what verified gross mass will be declared? | 80 drums for 14.8 MT net, about 1.6 t of drum tare on top of that, and a verified gross mass near 18.6 t once a container tare of roughly 2.2 t is added | A tonnage that does not equal the drum count multiplied by the net weight, or net and gross used interchangeably |
| Willingness to be inspected | We intend to nominate and pay an inspection company at the load point. Will it be given access to the lot and to loading? | Agreement, followed by questions about scope, test list and sampling practice, because the seller has done this before | Resistance, an offer of their own laboratory instead, or agreement to an inspection that happens after the container is sealed |
| The ability to say no | Ask for something genuinely difficult, such as a full ageing suite reported on the same day the sample is drawn | A refusal with the reason attached: the rolling thin film oven test alone runs 85 minutes at 163 °C under ASTM D2872 and the thin film oven test five hours at 163 °C under ASTM D1754, before residue testing starts | Agreement to everything, which is the answer that should worry a buyer most |
Almost every problem in bitumen export supply falls into one of five categories, and each has a specific, cheap preventive measure.
The cargo is nominally the right grade but the actual values sit outside the project requirement, or the grade name was never tied to a governing standard in the first place. Prevention: name the grade and the standard in the contract — "Bitumen 60/70 to ASTM D946", never "Bitumen 60/70 or equivalent" — and require a batch Certificate of Analysis with named test methods, checked against the specification before loading.
Drums that have carried a previous cargo are cheaper and are a recurring source of contamination claims. Residue can put a solubility or ash result outside specification, and the cargo is rejected at destination for a reason that has nothing to do with the bitumen. Prevention: specify new steel drums explicitly in the contract, and have drum condition included in the scope of the load-port inspection.
Bitumen is sold by weight and loaded by volume, and the two only agree at one temperature. A tonne occupies about 0.971 m³ at 15 °C and about 1.051 m³ at a 150 °C loading temperature — roughly eight percent more volume for identical mass. Cargo gauged hot at load and cooler at discharge appears short when nothing is missing. Prevention: state that quantity is determined on a weight basis in metric tonnes, name the point of determination, and appoint an independent surveyor.
The cargo is fine, the documents do not match the credit, and the bank refuses to pay. Common causes: a unit or quantity basis that differs between invoice and survey report, a description of goods that does not match the credit word for word, or a certificate issued by a party the credit did not name. Prevention: check the draft documents against the credit before shipment, and keep the unit and the goods description identical across contract, credit, invoice, packing list and bill of lading.
The most damaging and the least technical. A message arrives, apparently from the counterparty, advising a change of bank account. The funds go to the wrong place and are gone. Prevention: treat any change of banking details as fraud until proven otherwise. Verify it on a channel you already had, using contact details you already held, and never using the details in the message advising the change. The fraud prevention page sets out the full protocol, including what to do in the hours after a transfer has already gone.
Work through this on every supplier you approach. It takes an afternoon and it is the cheapest risk reduction available in this trade.
| Check | What good looks like | What should concern you |
|---|---|---|
| Counterparty type | A direct answer about whether they produce, trade or introduce | Evasion, or a claim to be a producer with no batch record to show |
| Technical depth | Specific answers on test methods, ageing, solubility, flash point method | A brochure sent in reply to a technical question |
| Specification basis | Grade plus governing standard named in writing | "Or equivalent", or a grade with no standard attached |
| Quality evidence | A batch COA with batch number, test date and named methods | A generic data sheet offered as if it were a COA |
| Inspection | Willing to have an internationally recognised inspector appointed at load port | Resistance to independent inspection, or insistence on their own laboratory only |
| Packing | New drums confirmed in writing; net weight stated separately from tare | Silence on new versus reconditioned; net and gross used interchangeably |
| Quantity basis | Weight basis, point of determination and tolerance in the contract | Volume with no reference temperature named |
| Payment structure | Terms that release funds against performance and documents | Pressure for full advance payment on a first transaction |
| Document consistency | Company name and bank details identical across all paperwork | Any mismatch, or a mid-transaction change of banking details |
| Price | Explainable against product, packing, freight and inspection | Materially below market with no explanation of where the saving comes from |
Each stage has one decision that matters more than the rest, and each stage needs something from the buyer that only the buyer can provide. These are they. The mechanics of each stage, the timeline shape and the payment instruments are set out in full on the export process page.
Give grade, quantity, packing, destination port and Incoterm. The decision that matters: send the project specification if one exists, so any gap surfaces now rather than after loading.
Specification, packing with net weight, price basis, validity, documentation and payment terms. The decision that matters: refuse to work from an offer that omits the governing standard or the validity date.
Grade and standard, quantity basis, inspection arrangement, payment instrument. The decision that matters: this is the only stage at which your protection can still be written in cheaply.
Sampling under supervision, sealed retained samples, drum and container condition recorded. The decision that matters: insist that retained samples are held by both parties, not only by the seller.
You supply your full registered entity name and address exactly as registered, the consignee and notify party as they must read on the bill of lading, the goods description the credit will carry, and the list of documents with the issuer of each one named. The decision that matters: instruct your bank in the contract's own wording and read the draft credit before it is issued, because every correction after issue is an amendment, a fee and a delay.
You supply the marks and any destination-language labelling before drums are filled, and any destination gross weight or axle limit that caps what a container may be loaded to. The decision that matters: a container loaded to its CSC plate weight can still be illegal on the road at the far end, and drums already filled and marked cannot be remarked without opening them.
Under UCP 600 a presentation including an original transport document must be made no later than 21 calendar days after the shipment date and within the credit's validity, and each bank has up to five banking days to examine it. The decision that matters: decide in advance who in your organisation has authority to waive a discrepancy, because that decision always arrives with a clock attached to it.
You supply the import licence or permit, any conformity certificate the destination requires, the classification you will declare — petroleum bitumen sits under HS 2713.20 — and an appointed customs broker. The decision that matters: destination conformity certificates generally have to be obtained before shipment and cannot be obtained once the vessel has sailed, so confirm scope with your broker at the enquiry stage rather than the arrival stage.
You supply a discharge point that can take the container inside its free time and somebody who counts before the box is released. The decision that matters: check the unit count, the marks and the seal number against the packing list at the gate, and note any damage on the delivery receipt. A claim raised after the cargo has been split, stored and part-used is a materially weaker claim than the same one raised on arrival.
A seller can only build what the buyer has described. This is the list of things nobody else can provide, the form each one has to take, and what it costs when it arrives late rather than early.
| Step | What the buyer supplies | The form it has to take | The cost of supplying it late |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry | Grade with its governing standard, tonnage, packing, destination port or place, the Incoterms 2020 rule and the date the material is needed on site | One line each, in writing: for example 60/70 to ASTM D946, 300 MT, 180 kg new steel drums, CFR named port, required in a stated month | No offer can be built at all, or an offer is built on an assumed delivery term and has to be redone once the assumption is corrected |
| Enquiry | The project specification, where one exists | The document itself rather than a summary, because a grade name does not cover every line a project specification contains | A gap between the project specification and the grade surfaces after loading instead of before pricing |
| Contract | Full registered entity name, registered address and registration number | Exactly as registered, and identical to the account holder named on the banking details | A name mismatch is a discrepancy under a documentary credit and a query at customs, and it is corrected by amendment rather than by explanation |
| Contract | The quantity basis, the point of determination and the tolerance | Weight in metric tonnes with the point named and a tolerance stated. Note that UCP 600 Article 30(b) allows a 5 % tolerance on quantity only where the credit does not state the quantity as a number of packing units, so a credit calling for 960 drums carries no tolerance at all | A quantity argument with no agreed basis, arising at the point when the cargo has already been discharged |
| Contract | The inspection nomination and its written scope | The inspection company, the test list, the sampling practice under ASTM D140, AASHTO T 40 or EN 58, whether packing and marking sit inside the scope, and who holds the sealed retained samples and for how long | An inspection arranged after the container is sealed proves the seal and nothing whatever about the binder |
| Before filling | The marks and any destination-language labelling | Grade, batch number, net weight, tare weight and production date on each drum, plus any text the destination regulator requires | Drums already filled and marked cannot be remarked without opening them |
| Before booking | The destination gross weight or axle limit | The legal combination weight in tonnes for the chassis that will actually move the container, taken from the haulier rather than assumed | A container loaded to its CSC plate weight that cannot legally leave the port, and a restuffing operation to correct it |
| Credit application | The goods description, the document list and the issuer of each document | Instructed to your bank in the contract's own wording, then checked in the draft credit before it is issued | An amendment cycle with bank charges, and a shipment held while the credit is corrected |
| Before shipment | The import licence or permit number and any destination conformity requirement | The number and the programme, confirmed with a customs broker at the destination | A conformity certificate that cannot be obtained once the vessel has sailed, against a cargo that is already afloat |
| On arrival | The delivery address, an appointed customs broker, and a discharge point that can take the container inside its free time | Named in advance, with the free time on the booking known rather than assumed | Demurrage and detention accruing while documents, equipment or storage are chased |
Every stage above asks the buyer for a grade with its governing standard, and that phrase means something different in each product family. This is what has to be named in each one for an offer to be checkable, and what goes wrong when only the familiar band name is sent. The cross-system mapping itself — which grade in one standard answers a grade in another — is on the grade equivalence page.
| Product family | How the grade is named | The standard that defines it | What the enquiry must state, and what goes wrong when it does not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penetration grade paving bitumen | A penetration band in tenths of a millimetre, such as 60/70 or 50/70 | ASTM D946, which names exactly five grades — 40-50, 60-70, 85-100, 120-150 and 200-300 — or EN 12591, which names 20/30, 30/45, 35/50, 40/60, 50/70, 70/100, 100/150, 160/220 and 250/330 | Which of the two systems governs, because they do not share names. EN 12591 contains no 60/70, no 80/100, no 120/150 and no 200/300, and a data sheet headed ASTM 30/40 names a grade ASTM D946 does not define, so no limit table stands behind it |
| Viscosity grade paving bitumen | A VG number set by absolute viscosity at 60 °C | IS 73:2013, which names VG-10, VG-20, VG-30 and VG-40 | The VG number, and that the certificate reports absolute viscosity at 60 °C by IS 1206 Part 2 alongside penetration at 25 °C. Each grade carries a penetration floor as a secondary requirement — VG-40 a minimum of 35 dmm and VG-30 a minimum of 45 dmm — so material that is fully compliant as a penetration grade can still fail the viscosity grade it was offered against |
| Chinese numbered grades | A single nominal number with a hash, such as 70# | JTG F40, which names 160#, 130#, 110#, 90#, 70#, 50# and 30#, each divided into sub-grades A, B and C | The sub-grade as well as the number. 70# covers penetration 60–80 dmm, so every compliant 60-70 sits inside 70# while a 70# cargo at 74 dmm sits outside 60-70; and a cargo comfortably inside the band can still be rejected on the sub-grade limits for ductility, wax content and ageing |
| Performance grade binder | A high and a low design temperature, such as PG 64-22 | AASHTO M320 or ASTM D6373, measured by DSR to ASTM D7175 and BBR to ASTM D6648 on original, RTFOT and PAV aged binder | That the designation has to come from the test suite run on the binder being shipped. A PG cannot be read off a penetration certificate, and two cargoes of the same penetration grade from different crude sources can grade differently |
| Oxidized (blown) grades | A softening point and penetration pair, such as 85/25 or 115/15 | ASTM D312 for roofing asphalt types, EN 13304 and EN 13305 in Europe; the paired name itself is trade convention rather than a standard designation | The pair, the end use and the application temperature. These are bought for roofing, waterproofing and pipe coating rather than for paving, and they are the one family whose softening point is high enough to ship as cast 25 kg units |
| Cutback bitumen | A cure letter and a viscosity number, such as MC-30 or MC-250 | ASTM D2027 for medium curing, ASTM D2028 for rapid curing and ASTM D2026 for slow curing | The exact grade, because the diluent decides the fire risk and therefore the packing and the vessel booking. ASTM D2027 requires a minimum flash point by Tag open cup of 38 °C for MC-30 and MC-70 and 66 °C for MC-250 and above, while ASTM D2028 sets no flash point limit for the RC series at all |
| Bitumen emulsion | A charge and a setting rate, such as CRS-1 or SS-1 | ASTM D2397 for cationic and ASTM D977 for anionic, or EN 13808 | The charge type, because it has to match the aggregate the emulsion will be sprayed onto. Emulsion is water-continuous, so freezing and long storage damage it in ways that do not apply to hot binder, and the shipping question is a different one |
| Modified binders | An IS 15462 grade, a CRMB grade or an EN 14023 designation | IS 15462 and IS 17079 in India, EN 14023 in Europe | The modifier type, the grade and the edition of the standard the project specification names, since the 2019 Indian revision changed the grade names. A modified binder named only as PMB is not a specification |
The right packing is decided by the destination and the route, not by the price of the packing. Find the row that describes where the cargo is actually going and how it gets there; requirements collected destination by destination are on the markets we serve page. Loading figures are the standard values used across this site and should be confirmed against the loading plan before a schedule is committed.
| Destination type | Packing that fits | Packing to avoid | The constraint that decides it | What to confirm before accepting the offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Container port with no bitumen terminal, road haulage on to a project site | New steel drums at 180 or 185 kg — 80 drums for 14.4 or 14.8 MT per 20-foot container | Bulk vessel parcel | Nothing has to be built at the destination; drums move one at a time on hired equipment and survive ports with no bitumen infrastructure at all | That the site has a decanter or melter, covered storage on hard standing, and a route for roughly 1.6 t of residue-bearing empty steel per container |
| Landlocked destination reached overland, with one or more border transloads | New steel drums | Heated tank containers and one-tonne bags | Every transload is a handling operation. Drums can be moved with whatever equipment is at the border; a heated tank has to hold its heat and a one-tonne block needs rated lifting at each stop | The gross weight and axle limits on each leg and who carries the risk at each border. The overland supply page sets out the route questions |
| Asphalt plant with a melter that accepts blocks and lifting rated for one tonne | One-tonne jumbo bags with a release liner, or meltable poly bags — 20 bags for 20 MT per 20-foot container | Drums | 20 MT per container against 14.4 MT in 180 kg drums for the same freight, with no steel to cut, store or dispose of | Whether the project specification permits the meltable film, which enters the mix. Where it does not, take the strip-off liner version instead |
| Hot-climate destination, or a route with long dwell in the sun at a transhipment hub | Drums; bagged product only in harder grades and cooler months | Bagged soft paving grades | A cast block has to stay a block. Ring and ball softening points for 60/70 typically run about 49 to 56 °C by ASTM D36 or EN 1427, and the interior of a closed container standing in the sun can reach that range | The shipping month, the transhipment route, and whether bags will be stacked more than two high or stored uncovered |
| Buyer with heated binder storage and a pump but no jetty access | Bitutainer or heated tank container, 20 to 25 MT per unit | Drums, once volume becomes regular | The lowest cost per tonne available in container-sized lots, discharging straight into your own tank | Whether the unit is returnable or one-way, and whether the terminal accepts UN 3257 Class 9 elevated temperature units where the cargo travels at or above 100 °C |
| Terminal with a berth and heated shore tanks | Bulk vessel parcel | Any containerised format | Lowest cost per tonne by a wide margin, and quantity is established by independent survey rather than by counting units | Shore tank capacity for the whole parcel, the discharge window, and that quantity is contracted on a weight basis with the point of determination named |
| Market with a 40 t combination road limit or strict axle enforcement | Drums, or any container deliberately loaded below its plate weight | Maximum-payload bitutainers | The CSC plate governs the box; the road law governs the truck underneath it, and in most of these markets the road law binds first | The legal combination weight for the chassis that will actually move the container, from the haulier rather than from the carrier |
| Roofing, waterproofing or pipe-coating plant taking oxidized grades | 25 kg cartons or multi-wall kraft bags, palletised | Paving grades in any bagged or cartoned form | Oxidized grades such as 85/25 and 115/15 carry softening points far above any ambient temperature, so small cast units hold their shape | The pallet pattern and stack height, because tonnage per container follows from those rather than from a fixed unit count |
| Destination operating a mandatory pre-shipment conformity programme | Any packing, with marks and labelling agreed before filling | Any arrangement in which inspection is left until the cargo is sealed | The certificate is a condition of import and is generally unobtainable once the vessel has sailed | Whether the product falls inside the programme's published scope, and who nominates and pays the agency appointed to it |
A document is only as good as the party that issued it, and several of the documents buyers ask a supplier for cannot be issued by a supplier at all. Read the second column first, then the third: most defects in a document set are traceable to information the buyer never sent.
| Document | Issued by | What the buyer must supply for it to be right | Who normally bears the cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proforma invoice | The seller | Full registered entity name and address, destination port or place, the Incoterms 2020 rule, the packing, and the grade with its governing standard | Seller; it is a quotation document and is not charged for |
| Sales contract | Both parties | The specification schedule with limits and test methods, the quantity basis and tolerance, the inspection scope, and banking details that will not be changed afterwards | Each party bears its own review cost |
| Commercial invoice | The seller, as beneficiary under the credit | The goods description that will appear in the credit, word for word, and the consignee and notify party exactly as they should read on the bill of lading | Seller |
| Packing list | The seller or the filling terminal | The marks and any destination-language labelling, confirmed before drums are filled, and a requirement that net, tare and gross appear as three separate figures | Seller |
| Bill of lading | The ocean carrier, the master, or a named agent for either | Consignee and notify party in full legal form, and whether the document is to be a straight bill or made out to order | Freight is allocated by the Incoterms 2020 rule agreed; the documentation fee sits with the shipper |
| Certificate of origin | A chamber of commerce in the country of export | Whether the destination requires legalisation or attestation, and the consignee details as destination customs will expect to read them | Seller, commonly passed through in the price; legalisation fees are normally charged separately |
| Certificate of Analysis | The producing refinery or terminal laboratory, or an independent laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 | Which document is the acceptance criterion, which lines must be reported, and whether the batch number must also appear on the drums and the packing list | Seller for the batch report; buyer where an independent laboratory is nominated |
| Technical Data Sheet | The producer or supplier | Nothing. It describes the grade in general and is not evidence about your cargo, so it should never be accepted in place of a Certificate of Analysis | Seller |
| Safety Data Sheet | The producer or supplier, in the 16-section GHS format | The language the destination requires, and any format its regulator specifies | Seller |
| Third-party inspection certificate | The inspection company, operating to ISO/IEC 17020 | The nomination, the written scope, the test list, the sampling practice, and who holds the sealed retained samples and for how long | Whoever appoints it. A buyer who wants the inspector's duty to run to them should nominate and pay directly |
| Weight certificate | A weighbridge operator, the terminal, or the appointed surveyor | The basis you require: net of drum tare, stated separately from gross, with the method of determination named on the certificate | Normally the party that appoints the surveyor |
| Insurance certificate | The insurer or its agent | The insured value and currency, and the destination address where cover is to run beyond the port of discharge | Seller under CIF and CIP; the buyer arranges its own cover under FCA, FOB, CFR and CPT |
| Verified gross mass declaration | The shipper, under SOLAS Chapter VI Regulation 2 | Any destination gross weight or axle limit that caps what the container may be loaded to | Shipper |
| Import licence, permit or destination conformity certificate | The destination authority, or the agency it appoints | The licence or permit number, and confirmation of whether the product falls inside a mandatory pre-shipment conformity programme, because such certificates generally cannot be obtained after the vessel has sailed | Buyer |
Stated plainly, so that it can be checked against what actually happens when you send an enquiry.
The first section of this page asks every supplier to say which of four things they are. The answer here: this is an export supply desk. It is not a refinery and does not present itself as one. The work is taking a technical requirement, fixing the specification and the commercial terms in writing, arranging packing and the document set, and standing behind what the contract says. Where a question belongs to a party closer to the material, the answer will say so rather than being improvised.
Some parts of a shipment cannot be delegated to a seller at any price, and they are worth listing because they are the ones that most often arrive late.
This checklist is published on a supplier's own website, which is a reasonable thing to be sceptical about.
This site publishes no certification, no tonnage figure, no trading history and no client list, because none of those would be verifiable by you from a web page. What it publishes instead is a technical library that can be checked line by line against ASTM, EN and Indian Standard publications, and a working method that can be tested against a specific enquiry. Those are the two things a buyer can actually verify before any money moves, so those are what is offered.
If a supplier — this one included — cannot survive the checklist above, the correct decision is not to proceed.
Establish which counterparty type they are, test the technical conversation with a question that has a right answer, require the documentation basis in writing, appoint an independent inspector at load port, and structure payment so funds follow performance. Check that company name and bank details are identical across every document, and treat any mid-transaction change of banking details as fraud until verified on a channel you already held.
Not automatically. A producer is closest to the batch record, but many are not set up for small export lots, unfamiliar destination documentation or a first-time buyer. A trading house controls packing and the document set and carries cargo risk. What actually determines safety is the contract, the inspection arrangement and the payment structure, not the counterparty's position in the chain.
The grade and its governing standard, the quantity and the basis on which it is determined with the point of determination named, packing specified including whether drums are new, the Incoterms 2020 rule with the named port or place, the inspection arrangement and who pays for it, the documentation set, the payment instrument, and a quantity tolerance. Anything left out is a gap that will be argued about later.
Because it converts every quality and quantity question from an argument into a document neither party wrote. The inspector samples under supervision, seals retained samples for both sides and issues a report your bank and insurer already recognise. It is a small, quantifiable line in the cost of a shipment and it should be shown priced inside the offer.
In practice it means the acceptance criteria are undefined. It gives the seller latitude to supply something adjacent and leaves the buyer without a clear basis for rejection. Name the grade and the standard instead, and if a substitution is genuinely needed, obtain written approval from the specifying engineer before shipment.
Align them first. Check the Incoterm, the packing, whether drums are new or reconditioned, whether the quoted weight is net of tare, whether inspection is included and what validity each carries. Most of the apparent price difference between two offers usually disappears once they describe the same thing — and whatever remains is worth asking about directly.
Your position depends almost entirely on what was arranged before shipment. With a contract naming the grade and standard, a batch COA and a load-port inspection certificate with sealed retained samples, you have a documented basis for a claim. Without those, you are arguing about a cargo that has already been discharged, handled and stored at your end.
A full advance to a new counterparty removes every protection you have and should be avoided. A documentary letter of credit releases funds only against shipping documents proving the cargo exists and has shipped. Where an L/C is impractical, a modest deposit with the balance payable against the inspection certificate and bill of lading achieves much of the same effect.
Six things make an offer possible: the grade with its governing standard, such as 60/70 to ASTM D946 or VG-30 to IS 73:2013; the tonnage; the packing; the destination port or place; the Incoterms 2020 rule you want quoted; and the date the material is needed on site. Two more make the offer accurate rather than merely possible: the project specification if one exists, because a grade name does not cover every line in it, and any destination gross weight or axle limit, because that caps what a container may be loaded to. An enquiry carrying a tonnage and nothing else cannot be priced. An enquiry carrying all eight produces an offer you can put side by side with another one.
The seller issues the proforma invoice, the commercial invoice and the packing list. The carrier or its named agent issues the bill of lading. A chamber of commerce in the country of export issues the certificate of origin. The Certificate of Analysis comes from the producing refinery or terminal laboratory, or from an independent laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 where one is nominated. The inspection certificate comes from the inspection company, operating to ISO/IEC 17020. The weight certificate comes from a weighbridge, terminal or the appointed surveyor, the insurance certificate from the insurer or its agent, and the verified gross mass declaration from the shipper under SOLAS Chapter VI Regulation 2. The import licence and any destination conformity certificate are the buyer's to obtain. A supplier who offers to produce a document belonging to one of those independent issuers has told you exactly what that document would be worth.
Three destination pages that show what a market-specific answer looks like, rather than a general one.
Send a grade, quantity, packing, destination port and delivery term — and any technical question you want tested. If a project specification exists, send it and it will be read line by line against what can actually be supplied.