Bitumen Asphaltive · Middle East Supply Desk
Grade family · ASTM D5 / EN 1426

Penetration Grade Bitumen: The Grading System, Every Grade, and How to Choose One

Penetration grading classifies paving bitumen by a single measurement: how far a standard needle sinks into it at 25 °C. This page sets out the ASTM D5 and EN 1426 procedure in full, puts every commonly traded grade from 20/30 to 200/300 into one comparison table, compares the American, European and Indian specification systems, and gives a grade-selection guide by climate and traffic loading.
WhatsApp RFQ · +971 56 144 5733 Specification Library Request a Quote
25 °CTest temperature, ASTM D5
100 g / 5 sNeedle load and dwell time
0.1 mmOne penetration unit
20/30 – 200/300Grade range covered here
The grading system

What penetration grade bitumen actually is

Penetration grading classifies paving bitumen by how far a standard needle sinks into it in five seconds at 25 °C. Everything the grade name says follows from that one measurement — and everything it does not say follows from it too.

A penetration grade is not a brand, a quality tier or a chemical description. It is a band of results from a single empirical test. A needle of specified geometry, loaded to a total mass of 100 g, is released onto the surface of a bitumen sample held at 25 °C and allowed to sink for exactly 5 seconds. The depth it reaches is measured in tenths of a millimetre; one penetration unit is 0.1 mm, usually written dmm. If the mean of three determinations lands between 60 and 70 dmm, the material is Bitumen 60/70. If it lands between 85 and 100 dmm, it is 85/100.

Because the needle sinks further into a softer material, the penetration number runs opposite to hardness. Bitumen 20/30 is the hardest grade in normal commercial trade and 200/300 is the softest. Buyers new to the product regularly read the scale the wrong way round and order a grade that is too soft for their climate.

What the two numbers in the name mean

The two figures are the lower and upper limits of the accepted band, not a target with a tolerance around it. A batch that tests at 61 dmm and a batch that tests at 69 dmm are both legitimately 60/70, and they are not the same material in practice: the softer batch is more workable at the plant, less rut-resistant in service, and behaves differently under the roller. This is the first reason a grade name is never a substitute for the measured number on the batch Certificate of Analysis.

Notation differs between standards. European practice writes the grade with a slash — 50/70, 70/100, 160/220. ASTM writes it with an en dash — 60–70, 85–100, 200–300. Middle East and Asian export documentation uses the slash form for every grade including the ASTM ones, so 85–100 on a US-style specification and 85/100 on a refinery data sheet describe the same material.

How penetration grades are produced

Paving bitumen is the residue left at the bottom of a vacuum distillation column once the gas oil fractions have been taken off the atmospheric residue. The severity of that vacuum cut is the primary control on penetration: a deeper cut leaves a harder residue with a lower penetration. Refineries land on a target band by three routes, and the route matters more than most buyers realise:

  • Straight-run. The vacuum residue is on grade as it leaves the column. This normally gives the most predictable field behaviour and the most stable temperature susceptibility.
  • Air rectification, or semi-blowing. A softer residue is partially oxidised in a controlled column to raise the softening point and pull the penetration into band. Done lightly this is ordinary refinery practice. Done heavily it produces a binder that passes the penetration test while being brittle and low in ductility.
  • Blending. A hard component and a soft component are blended to a target penetration. The blend can sit precisely in band and still be more temperature susceptible than a straight-run product at the same penetration.

All three routes yield material that is correctly labelled with the same grade name. That is precisely why the other lines on a specification — softening point, ductility, loss on heating, retained penetration after the oven test — carry more information than the penetration figure by itself.

Where penetration grading sits among the three systems

Three classification systems are in commercial use at the same time, and a single parcel of bitumen can be described in all three at once:

  • Penetration grading — consistency at 25 °C, specified by ASTM D946 in the United States and EN 12591 in Europe. This page.
  • Viscosity grading — absolute viscosity at 60 °C, a temperature much closer to what a pavement actually reaches in summer. Used in India as VG-10 to VG-40 under IS 73:2013, and historically in the United States as AC grades under ASTM D3381.
  • Performance grading — the pavement temperature range the binder is verified to survive, established by rheological testing under AASHTO M320. PG 64-16 means the binder has been checked at a 64 °C high pavement design temperature and a −16 °C low pavement design temperature.

Each system asks a different question about the same barrel, so one parcel can legitimately carry a penetration grade, a viscosity grade and a performance grade at once without any of the three being the real one and the others approximations. None converts arithmetically into another, and any table that claims otherwise is offering a comparison rather than a substitution. The practical cross-references, and their limits, are set out on the grade equivalence page.

Test procedure

The ASTM D5 / EN 1426 penetration test, step by step

The entire grading system rests on one laboratory procedure. ASTM D5, EN 1426 and IS 1203 describe it in almost identical terms, so a result produced under any of the three is directly comparable with the others.

Prepare the sample

The bitumen is warmed just enough to pour. ASTM D5 limits both how far above the expected softening point the sample may be taken and how long it may stay on the heat, because overheating the sample ages it and biases the result low before the needle ever touches it. The melt is stirred until entrained air has escaped, then poured into a metal or glass container deep enough that the needle cannot approach the base — a shallow dish reads low because the base resists the needle. Two containers are normally filled so the determination can be repeated without reheating.

Condition to 25 °C

The filled container is cooled in still air away from draughts and dust, then transferred to a water bath held at 25 °C. Each stage takes roughly one to two hours depending on container size. Bath control is the single largest source of error in the test: the temperature is held to within a tenth of a degree, because a drift of one degree moves the reading by several penetration units on a soft grade.

Release the needle

The container sits in a transfer dish of bath water beneath the penetrometer. A clean standard needle is lowered until it just touches the surface, the dial is zeroed, and the assembly — needle, carrier and weight totalling 100 g — is released for exactly 5 seconds. Three determinations are made, each at least 10 mm from the container wall and at least 10 mm from the previous one, with the needle wiped clean between them.

Report the result

The reported penetration is the mean of the three determinations in whole units of 0.1 mm. The three must agree within a permitted spread that widens as the material gets softer, which is why a soft grade sitting near a band edge deserves more scrutiny than a hard one. If the spread is exceeded, the set is discarded and the test repeated on the second container.

Known limitation

What the penetration number does not tell you

Penetration describes consistency at one temperature, under one load, for one duration. Almost everything a pavement engineer worries about happens at other temperatures, under other loads, over other timescales.

This is not a criticism of the test. It is fast, cheap, reproducible and it has classified paving bitumen for over a century. It is a caution about how much weight a single figure can carry. Four things the grade name is silent about account for most of the field problems that later get blamed on bad bitumen.

1. Temperature susceptibility

Two binders can both read 65 dmm at 25 °C and behave completely differently at 60 °C or at −5 °C. The rate at which consistency changes with temperature is captured by the penetration index (PI), calculated from penetration and ring and ball softening point:

PI = (1952 − 500 · log P − 20 · SP) ÷ (50 · log P − SP − 120)

where P is penetration at 25 °C in dmm and SP is the ring and ball softening point in °C. Take two batches that both test at P = 65:

  • Batch A, softening point 52 °C, gives PI ≈ −0.1. A normal, well-behaved paving bitumen.
  • Batch B, softening point 46 °C, gives PI ≈ −1.7. Markedly more temperature susceptible: softer when the pavement is hot, more brittle when it is cold.

Both batches are correctly sold as 60/70 and both would pass a penetration-only inspection. Conventional straight-run paving bitumen usually falls between roughly −1 and +1. Values below −2 indicate a temperature-susceptible binder prone to low-temperature cracking; values above +2 are characteristic of blown or oxidised bitumen rather than a paving grade. Penetration index costs nothing to calculate when the certificate reports both inputs, and it is the single most useful thing a buyer can derive from a penetration-grade COA.

2. Ageing

Penetration is measured on virgin binder. The binder that ends up in the road has passed through a drum or batch plant at 150 to 165 °C and then faced years of oxidation in service. The tests that address this are the thin film oven test (ASTM D1754) and the rolling thin film oven test (EN 12607-1 / ASTM D2872), after which penetration is re-run on the residue. A binder that retains a high share of its original penetration after the oven test stays flexible; one that hardens sharply is on a path to premature cracking whatever its virgin grade name says. Retained penetration is also the line most often missing from a weak certificate.

3. Low-temperature behaviour

Nothing in the penetration test happens below 25 °C, so it cannot predict thermal cracking. The empirical answer is the Fraass breaking point (EN 12593), reported as the temperature at which a thin film of bitumen on a steel plaque cracks under flexing. The mechanistic answer is the bending beam rheometer used in performance grading. This is why a project in a genuinely cold climate should be specified in performance-grade terms rather than by penetration alone.

4. Behaviour under traffic

The needle applies a static load for five seconds. Traffic applies repeated dynamic loading for years. Rutting resistance and fatigue behaviour are governed by the binder's complex modulus and phase angle, measured on a dynamic shear rheometer, and by whether the binder is polymer modified. A penetration grade cannot be converted into a rutting prediction, and no combination of penetration and softening point substitutes for a performance grade where the specification calls for one.

Why the system survives anyway

Penetration grading remains the commercial language of the bitumen export trade for practical reasons. The test needs a water bath and a penetrometer rather than a rheometer, so it can be run in a port laboratory almost anywhere in the world. It is written into the national road specifications of most importing countries. And the grade names are unambiguous enough to price and contract against. The correct posture is to trade in penetration grades and verify with the rest of the certificate — softening point, ductility, solubility and the oven-test residue — rather than treating the grade name as if it were the whole specification.

Master comparison

Every penetration grade in one table

These are the ten penetration grades in active international trade, from the hardest to the softest. Follow the grade name through to its own page for the full specification table, handling temperatures and packing figures.

Penetration grades in commercial trade — penetration band, typical softening point, the standard that names the grade, and where it belongs.
GradePenetration at 25 °C, dmmTypical softening point, °CStandard that names itTypical application
20/3020–3055–63EN 12591High-modulus base courses, mastic asphalt, bridge deck systems, feedstock for oxidised grades
30/4030–4055–63Export data sheets; not an ASTM D946 or EN 12591 gradeHeavy-duty base and binder courses in very hot climates; blown bitumen feedstock
40/5040–5052–60ASTM D946 / AASHTO M20Heavily loaded and channelised pavements in hot climates where rutting governs
50/7050–7046–54EN 12591The European workhorse paving grade for wearing and binder courses
60/7060–7049–56ASTM D946 / AASHTO M20The dominant export paving grade for hot and moderate climates
70/10070–10043–51EN 12591Cooler European climates, surface dressing, emulsion feedstock
80/10080–10045–52Export data sheets; EN counterpart is 70/100Cooler climates and lightly trafficked roads; cutback and emulsion base
85/10085–10045–52ASTM D946 / AASHTO M20The ASTM counterpart of 80/100; widely specified across Africa and South Asia
120/150120–15038–48ASTM D946; EN counterpart is 100/150Cold-climate paving, surface dressing, cutback and emulsion production
200/300200–30030–40ASTM D946; EN counterparts are 160/220 and 250/330Very cold climates, specialised surface treatments, cutback feedstock
Softening point is shown as a typical range and it is the column that varies most between sources. ASTM D946 does not specify softening point at all — it controls penetration, flash point, ductility, solubility and the thin film oven residue — so the figures against the ASTM grades are refinery-typical values taken from published technical data sheets, while the figures against the EN 12591 grades are the bands written into that standard. The 20/30 and 30/40 rows carry the same range because they come from two different sources rather than from one continuous data set: 55–63 °C is the band EN 12591 writes for 20/30, and it is also the figure most export data sheets print for 30/40. Read this column as an indication of where a grade normally lands, not as a ranking — softening point responds to the shape of the whole consistency curve rather than to penetration alone, which is precisely the limitation set out in the previous section. Where this table and a contract disagree, the contract and the batch Certificate of Analysis govern.
Specification systems

ASTM D946 compared with EN 12591 and the Indian system

The same barrel of bitumen can be sold against three different rulebooks. Knowing what each one actually controls tells you which certificate lines to insist on and where a specification written elsewhere will not translate.

How the three specification systems a bitumen buyer encounters differ in what they measure and what they control.
Point of comparisonASTM D946 / AASHTO M20EN 12591IS 73:2013 (India)
Classification basisPenetration at 25 °CPenetration at 25 °CAbsolute viscosity at 60 °C — viscosity grading, not penetration grading
Grades covered40–50, 60–70, 85–100, 120–150, 200–30020/30, 30/45, 35/50, 40/60, 50/70, 70/100, 100/150, 160/220, 250/330VG-10, VG-20, VG-30, VG-40
Penetration test methodASTM D5EN 1426IS 1203
Penetration requirementThe grade band itself, minimum and maximumThe grade band itself, minimum and maximumA minimum only — VG-30 requires at least 45 dmm, VG-40 at least 35 dmm
Softening point requirementNot specifiedA band for every grade, tested to EN 1427A minimum for every grade, tested to IS 1205
Ageing testThin film oven test, ASTM D1754Rolling thin film oven test, EN 12607-1Rolling thin film oven test
How ageing is controlledRetained penetration and ductility of the residueChange of mass, retained penetration and softening point after hardeningViscosity ratio at 60 °C after the oven test
Viscosity at 135 °CNot specifiedNational requirement in some member statesA minimum for every grade
Low-temperature propertyNot specifiedFraass breaking point, EN 12593, where nationally requiredNot specified
Hard gradesNot covered10/20 and 15/25 are covered separately by EN 13924-1Not covered
Practical statusThe contractual language of most export trade in the Middle East, Africa and AsiaThe reference specification across the European UnionThe national system in India. Viscosity grading replaced the IS 73:1992 penetration grades S-35 to S-200 at the 2006 revision; IS 73:2013 is the current edition
The most common procurement error on this table is treating the rows as interchangeable. A cargo of 60/70 tested to ASTM D5 has not been shown to meet EN 12591 50/70, because EN 12591 also imposes a softening point band and a hardening requirement that the ASTM certificate does not report. Likewise a 60/70 does not automatically satisfy a VG-30 specification, because VG-30 is defined by viscosity at 60 °C, which is not on the certificate at all. Where a road authority names a grade, supply that grade and obtain written approval before substituting.
Grade selection

Choosing a grade by climate and traffic loading

Grade selection is a trade-off between two failure modes. Too soft a binder ruts and shoves in hot weather under heavy traffic. Too hard a binder cracks in cold weather and is difficult to compact. The table below is the starting point that discussion normally takes.

Indicative grade selection by design climate and traffic loading. The governing document is always the national or project specification.
Design climateTypical conditionsLight to medium trafficHeavy or channelised traffic
Very hot arid — Gulf, Sahara, desert interiorAir above 45 °C; pavement surface can exceed 65 °C; large daily swing40/50 or 60/7030/40 or 40/50; polymer modified binder on the heaviest corridors
Hot tropical and monsoon — South Asia, West Africa, Southeast AsiaAir 35–45 °C with high humidity and intense rainfall60/7040/50 or 60/70; polymer modified binder at junctions and bus lanes
Warm Mediterranean — southern Europe, North Africa, the LevantAir 30–40 °C in summer, mild winters rarely below freezing50/70 or 70/10035/50 or 50/70
Temperate maritime — northern Europe, highland East AfricaAir 20–30 °C in summer, winters around freezing70/100, 80/100 or 85/10050/70 or 70/100
Cool continentalShort warm summer, winter sustained well below freezing100/150 or 120/15070/100 or 100/150
Cold — Nordic, Central Asian highland, northern prairieDeep winter frost; thermal cracking rather than rutting governs160/220 or 200/300120/150 or 160/220
Three qualifications. First, this is a starting point for a grade discussion, not a pavement design method — the national road specification or the project specification always governs, and many countries name the grade outright. Second, surface dressing and chip seal binders are normally one or two steps softer than the paving grade used in the same country, because the binder must wet and hold the chipping without a mixing plant to help. Third, at the extremes of this table the right answer is often not a harder or softer penetration grade but a polymer modified binder, or a binder specified in performance-grade terms so that the high and low pavement temperatures are both controlled explicitly.
Applications

What the penetration grade family is used for

Penetration grades are both a finished product and a raw material. Roughly speaking, the harder end of the range feeds industrial products and heavy-duty pavement, the middle carries conventional paving, and the softer end feeds surface treatments and derived binders.

1

Dense-graded hot mix asphalt

The dominant use by volume. 40/50, 50/70 and 60/70 cover wearing, binder and base courses in hot and warm climates; 70/100, 80/100 and 85/100 take over as the design climate cools. The grade choice here is the rutting-versus-cracking trade-off in its purest form.

2

Surface dressing and chip seal

Sprayed hot onto an existing surface before chippings are spread and rolled. The grade is typically one or two steps softer than the local paving grade, because the binder has to wet the aggregate and hold it without the help of a mixing plant.

3

Cutback bitumen manufacture

60/70 and 80/100 are the usual base binders, blended with kerosene for medium-curing MC-30 and MC-70 prime coats and with heavier distillate for slow-curing grades. Starting from a softer grade such as 120/150 reduces the volume of solvent needed to reach a given viscosity.

4

Bitumen emulsion manufacture

Cationic and anionic emulsions for tack coats, prime coats, fog seals and slurry seals are milled from 60/70, 80/100 and softer grades. The base grade sets the consistency of the residual binder that remains once the emulsion has broken and cured.

5

Feedstock for oxidised and industrial grades

Hard penetration grades and dedicated blowing feedstocks are air-blown to produce industrial grades such as 85/25 and 115/15 for roofing, pipe coating and waterproofing. The starting penetration largely determines blowing time and yield.

6

Base binder for polymer modified bitumen

PMB is built on a penetration grade base, most often 60/70 or 70/100, with SBS or a plastomer dispersed into it. The base grade is selected so that the finished modified binder lands on both the required high and low pavement temperatures.

Procurement

Buying by penetration grade without getting caught

The grade name is the beginning of a specification, not the whole of it. These are the points where penetration-grade purchases actually go wrong, in the order they usually go wrong.

Insist on measured values, not the specification range

A Certificate of Analysis that prints "60–70" in the result column has told you nothing at all. A real COA reports a number — 64, or 67 — against each test, together with the batch or tank reference, the date of test and the laboratory that ran it. Certificates whose results land on the identical figure shipment after shipment deserve the same scrutiny as certificates that simply restate the limits.

Read penetration and softening point together

Spend thirty seconds calculating the penetration index from the two figures before you accept the certificate. A 60/70 with a 49 °C softening point and a 60/70 with a 55 °C softening point are different products for your pavement, and in a hot climate only one of them may suit. This single arithmetic check catches more unsuitable material than any other line on the document.

Expect a small drop between load port and destination

Penetration measured at destination is often a few units lower than the load-port figure. Part of that is genuine oxidation from drumming, storage and any reheating; part is ordinary test variability, which widens as the grade gets softer. A drop of a few units on a grade with a ten-unit band is normal. A batch that has moved from mid-band to out of band has usually been overheated somewhere in the chain, and the temperature record rather than the laboratory is the first place to look.

Watch the anti-adulteration line, and check which solvent it names

Solubility at a minimum of 99.0 % is what separates genuine bitumen from bitumen extended with mineral filler, heavy residues or reclaimed material. The solvent is not the same in the two methods: ASTM D2042 dissolves the sample in trichloroethylene, while EN 12592 uses toluene, and a certificate that prints "solubility in trichloroethylene" against an EN method number has been assembled without much care. This line matters more on a penetration-graded cargo than on almost any other, for an arithmetic reason: an extender can be dosed to land a blend anywhere inside a ten-, thirty- or hundred-unit penetration band, so the very test that defines the grade is the test least able to detect the adulteration. Where solubility is absent from the certificate, treat the omission as a finding.

Judge a disputed result against the precision of the test, not against the band edge

ASTM D5 permits a spread between the highest and lowest of the three determinations that widens as the material softens — a couple of units on a hard grade, several times that on a very soft one — and the reproducibility between two different laboratories is wider again. That asymmetry should shape how a claim is argued. A 200/300 reported at 197 by a destination laboratory against 205 at load port is inside the noise of the method. A 40/50 reported at 38 against 44 is a much stronger signal, because at that consistency the method is far more precise and the band is only ten units wide. Before opening a claim, establish which method was run, by which laboratory, on which sample, and whether the difference exceeds what the method itself allows. The document set that supports that argument is described on the quality control and export documents page.

Match the grade to the standard, not to the offer

Where a road authority names a grade, supply that grade. Cross-system substitutions — offering 60/70 against a VG-30 specification, or 50/70 against a 60/70 requirement — need the engineer's written approval before the cargo loads, not a negotiation after it arrives. The detailed cross-references sit on the grade equivalence and specification library pages, and the test methods behind each certificate line are described on the test methods page.

Let the grade decide the packing

Packing is normally treated as a cost line, but at the two ends of this grade family it is a technical decision. Hard grades — 20/30, 30/40, 40/50 — keep their shape through a hot quayside and travel in bags as readily as in drums. From roughly 120/150 downwards the binder creeps under its own weight in warm storage: bagged soft grades slump, stack badly and arrive as a shape nobody can handle, so steel drums or bulk become the working options. The softer the grade, the more the packing decision is about whether the cargo is still usable when the container doors open, and the less it is about the price of the packaging.

Buyer questions

Frequently asked questions about penetration grade bitumen

What is penetration grade bitumen?

It is paving bitumen classified by how deep a standard needle penetrates it under a 100 g load for 5 seconds at 25 °C, measured in tenths of a millimetre. The grade name is the accepted band of that result, so 60/70 means 60 to 70 dmm. The grades in active international trade run from 20/30, the hardest, to 200/300, the softest. The test is ASTM D5, EN 1426 or IS 1203 — three near-identical descriptions of the same procedure.

How exactly is bitumen penetration measured?

The sample is heated only until it pours, poured into a container deep enough that the needle cannot reach the base, cooled in air, then conditioned in a water bath at 25 °C. A needle assembly weighing 100 g in total is released onto the surface for exactly 5 seconds. Three determinations are taken at least 10 mm apart and at least 10 mm from the container wall, and the reported penetration is their mean in whole units of 0.1 mm. Bath temperature control is the biggest source of error, which is why the bath is held to within a tenth of a degree.

Does a higher penetration number mean better bitumen?

No. It means softer bitumen and nothing else. 200/300 is not worse than 20/30; it is softer, and the two suit opposite climates. Quality within a grade is judged by the rest of the certificate — softening point, ductility, solubility, loss on heating and retained penetration after the oven test — not by where the penetration figure sits.

Which penetration grade should I use in a hot climate?

In hot climates with air temperatures of 35 to 45 °C, 60/70 is the default and 40/50 is the usual choice where traffic is heavy and channelised. In very hot arid conditions where the pavement surface passes 65 °C, 30/40 or 40/50 is used and the heaviest corridors move to a polymer modified binder. Penetration on its own is a weak basis for that decision, because two cargoes with identical penetration can differ by six or seven degrees of softening point and therefore behave very differently once the pavement is hot. Calculate the penetration index from the two figures on the certificate and take the less temperature-susceptible batch — before the cargo loads, not after it arrives.

What is the difference between penetration grading, viscosity grading and performance grading?

Penetration grading measures consistency at 25 °C with a needle. Viscosity grading measures absolute viscosity at 60 °C, which is closer to real summer pavement temperature, and is used in India as VG-10 to VG-40 under IS 73:2013. Performance grading measures rheological behaviour and states the high and low pavement temperatures the binder is verified for, such as PG 64-16, under AASHTO M320. All three describe the same material from different angles, and none of them is the true one with the others as approximations. What separates them in practice is where on the temperature scale they take their reading: 25 °C, 60 °C, or the two extremes of the pavement's own service range. None converts arithmetically into another, so cross-system comparisons stay approximate and a substitution needs the engineer's approval.

Why do 50/70, 60/70 and 70/100 all exist when their bands overlap?

Because they come from different standards. 50/70 and 70/100 are European grades defined in EN 12591; 60/70 is an ASTM D946 grade that is also the default of Middle East and Asian export trade. 60/70 straddles the two European bands, so a European specification calling for 50/70 is not automatically satisfied by a 60/70 cargo even though much of the material would test inside both. EN 12591 also imposes a softening point band and a hardening requirement that an ASTM certificate does not report.

What is penetration index and does it appear on a Certificate of Analysis?

Penetration index is a measure of how quickly a binder changes consistency with temperature, calculated from penetration at 25 °C and ring and ball softening point as PI = (1952 − 500 log P − 20 SP) ÷ (50 log P − SP − 120). It rarely appears on an export COA, but both inputs almost always do, so a buyer can calculate it in a spreadsheet. Conventional paving bitumen sits between roughly −1 and +1. A value below −2 signals a temperature-susceptible binder that is prone to low-temperature cracking; a value above +2 points to a blown or oxidised material rather than a paving grade.

Does the packing format depend on which penetration grade I buy?

Yes, and it is the part of the decision buyers most often leave to the freight quote. Hard grades — 20/30, 30/40 and 40/50 — stay dimensionally stable at quayside temperatures and travel equally well in steel drums, in jumbo or meltable bags, or in bulk. From roughly 120/150 downwards the binder creeps under its own weight in warm storage, so bagged soft grades slump, stack poorly and are awkward to handle at destination; drums or bulk are the usual answer for those. The mid-range grades that carry most of the volume — 50/70, 60/70, 70/100, 80/100 and 85/100 — are routinely offered in every format, and the choice there depends on whether the buyer has heated storage and a melting unit rather than on the binder. Container loading figures for each format are on the individual grade pages.

Related reading

Where to go next

The European standard names bands the ASTM series does not, and two of them come up constantly in export enquiries.

  • Bitumen 30/45 — an EN 12591 band with no ASTM equivalent of the same name
  • Bitumen 35/50 — the EN band that overlaps ASTM 40/50 without matching it
QC
How this page is maintainedPenetration bands are taken from the grade definitions in ASTM D946 and EN 12591. Softening point figures are stated as typical ranges: for EN 12591 grades they are the bands written into that standard, and for the remaining grades they are refinery-typical values from published technical data sheets, because ASTM D946 does not specify softening point. Every figure is cross-referenced to the test method that produces it. Nothing on this page is a contractual number: the penetration bands are grade definitions, the softening point column is an indication of where a grade normally sits, and the values that bind a shipment are the ones written into the sales contract and reported on the batch Certificate of Analysis. Standards are revised, and a grade table is only as current as its last check against them; if you hold an edition that contradicts something above, quote the clause and this page will be amended.

Request a penetration grade bitumen quotation

If you already know the grade, give it with the quantity, packing, discharge port and Incoterm. If you do not, that is a normal starting point on this page: send the project location, the traffic loading and any national standard the cargo has to satisfy, and a grade will be proposed and justified against them before anything is priced.

Send RFQ on WhatsApp
WA
© Bitumen Asphaltive · Export inquiries: WhatsApp +971 56 144 5733 · info@bitumenasphaltive.com · Page last reviewed August 2026
Email enquiry WhatsApp enquiry