The X-th Intersectoral Conference "PRO Bitumen and PBB" was held in St. Petersburg, organized by Rosneft Bitumen, Gazprom Neft, SIBUR Holding with the support of the Federal Road Agency (Rosavtodor) and the State Company Russian Highways (Avtodor).
The head of the Pricing Department of ROSDORNIA, Anna Platunova, made a presentation at the conference on the results of cost monitoring and mechanisms for accounting for price changes for bitumen binders, the event was also attended by Deputy General Director Alexey Adam and Deputy Head of the Pricing Department Mikhail Ivannikov.
The total production capacity of road bitumen in the territory of the Russian Federation is 11.5 million tons. At the same time, the largest volume of production capacities of road bitumen falls on the Volga Federal District (about 40%).
According to preliminary data, the projected consumption of bitumen materials for the period 2022-2024 is more than 10 million tons. As part of the current assessment of the state of the industry and the prospective demand for bitumen materials, the volume of production capacity of road bitumen is sufficient to implement the planned works until 2024.
Bitumen consumption has been on a downward trend since 2022 with an increase in the annual rate of decline. The largest projected bitumen consumption for the period 2022-2024 falls on the Volga and Central Federal Districts. By 2024, an overall decrease in the volume of forecasted bitumen consumption is expected by 21%. The largest decrease is predicted in the Central, Southern and Volga Federal Districts. However, this forecast does not take into account those decisions that are being worked out as part of anti-crisis measures aimed at accelerating construction.
The average market price for oil road bitumen in the Russian Federation in the first quarter of 2022 is 30% higher than in the first quarter of 2021 and amounts to 28.9 thousand rubles per ton.
In order to analyze the dynamics of price changes for bitumen materials, ROSDORNII implements a set of measures to prevent the growth and fluctuations of bitumen prices in the domestic market, as well as to ensure uniform purchase of bitumen and the organization of its off-season storage.
In order to reduce the negative consequences associated with a significant increase in prices for construction materials for newly started facilities, the Ministry of Transport of Russia and the Ministry of Construction of Russia organized a joint work on the development of indices of changes in the estimated cost of construction by types of objects "Highways", "Artificial road structures", "High-speed highways (category IB)". The indices are calculated on the basis of data from quarterly monitoring of the current price level of construction resources, which made it possible to increase the reliability of determining the estimated cost and partially take into account the actual dynamics of price changes for bitumen materials.
The Government of the Russian Federation has established the possibility of changing the price of contracts for construction, reconstruction and capital repairs of capital construction facilities due to an increase in the cost of price-forming materials (equipment) in accordance with the approved procedure for its recalculation for contracts concluded before January 1, 2023.
In addition, additional anti-crisis measures are currently being worked out, including those aimed at curbing the growth of prices for construction resources, as well as the possibility of changing the prices of contracts for the repair and maintenance of highways due to the increase in the cost of construction resources.
The conference "PRO Bitumen and PBB" is the largest intersectoral event on the practice of using bitumen and bitumen-derived products, at which more than 500 representatives of government agencies, manufacturers and consumers of bitumen and polymer-bitumen binders in an open dialogue discuss topical issues of road construction and materials used, develop effective solutions for further market development, determine trends, share experiences. A separate part of the program is devoted to regulatory and legislative documents, necessary changes and requirements for the quality of materials supplied to road facilities and their estimated cost.