The winter season usually sees a winding down in bitumen activity in terms of construction and road building, but not in 2025. Our experts delve into what has been a surprisingly unseasonal end to 2025.

Listen to our market experts – Jonathan Weston (Europe and Asia Lead, and Editor of Argus Bitumen) and Keyvan Hedvat (Europe and Africa Bitumen Editor), give detailed insights into their news snapshots including;

- Mediterranean bitumen supply much tighter than usual going into winter low demand season

- Med cargo diffs to fuel oil now broadly - and very unusually - in parity with fob Rott diffs

- Ongoing positive demand into north African and Black Sea markets

- Regional refinery bitumen production restricted - including SRI Augusta and US sanctions affected Bulgarian and Serbian refineries

- Arbitrage to the US from Med stays firmly shut after brief opening in Aug/Sept

- West Africa, now in dry/bitumen demand season, set to draw more European bitumen.