ASA has a keen eye on the driving forces that will dictate future asphalt availability and quality. We understand the market dynamics that create opportunities and challenges for producers and end-users.
SynBit, DilBit and Synthetic Crude Oil from the Athabasca Tar Sands brought forward new handling, processing and quality challenges to the asphalt refiners and ultimately to the asphalt end-user community, but the dramatic and rapid shift of many of North American refiners to processing Shale Oil yielded even greater impacts on the asphalt buyers as Shale Oil is a light crude oil, containing little or no asphaltic bottoms, leading to less asphalt production for paving or roofing applications and potentially starving many existing coker operations.
As quickly as Shale Oil had dominated North American crude production, pricing reactions by OPEC quickly reversed this North American trend, making Shale Oil the worlds marginal crude oil supply, and again shoving the asphalt marketplace into further change.
New asphalt and crude oil trading dynamics in 2016-2019 added broad variability to the North American marketplace, further impacting the North American asphalt community.
As we entered 2021, demand is slowly recovering but the refining community continues to seek the right balance of crude oil selection and refined product economics, further stressing the related quality issues in products such as asphalt.
Today, crude oil selection and mixtures of multiple crude oils chosen to be refined are often determined by computer-driven value & cost modeling, intended to generate the highest profit return for that refiner.
Refining decisions, driven by the need to generate higher value products to recover their investments, typically do not reflect or even consider requirements for consistent quality asphalt.
A huge wave of “green chemistry” rejuvenators and extenders; based on various natural oils, entered the asphalt marketplace over the last 15 years as stories of unexplained early road failures shocked the state and federal highway agencies and threatened to isolate and potentially ban many of these useful modifier chemistries.
Issues of over-use or miss-use of some of these new green additive chemistries has frequently shocked the marketplace and generated caution and skepticism of many promising and beneficial chemistries. Today, the asphalt user seeking help with chemical additives is challenged to choose between vendor promises of functionality and market rumors of early road failures, which actually may be more attributed to the lack of discipline in the use of one or more of these many additive chemistries.
In little more than two decades, North America has experienced (i) significant shifts in the availability of asphalt, (ii) higher costs for the available asphalt but more importantly, (iii) dramatic and continuing changes in asphalt quality & consistency; all of which, threaten the paving contractor’s and roofing manufacturer’s long-term ability to provide a high-quality product and significantly increases the costs of roofing our homes or paving our highways.
What are the impacts of these rapid market shifts on the continuing demands for asphalt and its various applications?
What are the quality impacts of these new asphalts?
How do you track and manage the rapidly changing asphalt quality for your business?
Do adequate quality asphalt supply options still exist?
How is the refining landscape changing to address these expanding issues?
Are there new or evolving options to replace asphalt as we know it today?
Are you prepared for the potential impacts to your business?
ASA can help you to understand and maneuver through the changes that you will need to implement to protect your business needs.
Asphalt supply is dramatically changing and this will impact your asphalt cost and quality.
Asphalt quality is also dramatically changing… changing in ways yet unseen by most asphalt users and many of these end-users have limited or no ability to address these changes.
We are tracking this all; be it an asphalt evolution or an asphalt revolution.
We will participate.
We can explain what’s happening.
We can help you manage through it.
In our market studies, ASA has assessed the North American roofing manufacturers and asphalt refiners, their production or refining sites and the products they manufacture at those sites. We have continually monitored each of these asphalt industry segments, looking for evidence of changes that may impact the asphalt that our clients require.
ASA continually seeks out and evaluates new materials that are claimed to hold the promise to one day supplement or perhaps even replace asphalt. We have conducted assessments of the effectiveness and viability of many of these asphalt alternatives and we can offer an overview of these as well as major current and future asphalt modifiers.
ASA can guide you to those solutions that will best fit your specific business needs.
Phone: (973) 216-3560 • Fax: (970) 251-7254
obscure-email
320 Commons Drive, Suite 313, Parkesburg, PA 19365
© 2025 Asphalt & Sourcing Alliance | All rights reserved
Is there a greener path to your asphalt future?
What does your asphalt quality future look like?
How can you assure the continuing quality of the asphalt that you need every day?
A small-footprint clean refining technology is evolving and could dramatically change the landscape of refined products and of asphalt, particularly for roofing applications.
Are you watching?
Are you ready to participate?
Do you need help with asphalt terminals or how to manage asphalt supply?
How will you manage or predict your asphalt cost?
Take a new path and try exploring asphalt with our friends at asphaltunlimitedllc.com
We've done this!
Call us. ASA and our partners can answer your questions.
With some exciting new tools and expanding asphalt options, let’s plot your new path.
What does your asphalt quality future look like?
How can you assure the continuing quality of the asphalt that you need every day?
A small-footprint clean refining technology is evolving and could dramatically change the landscape of refined products and of asphalt, particularly for roofing applications.
Are you watching?
Are you ready to participate?
Do you need help with asphalt terminals or how to manage asphalt supply?
How will you manage or predict your asphalt cost?
Take a new path and try exploring asphalt with our friends at asphaltunlimitedllc.com
We've done this!
Call us. ASA and our partners can answer your questions.
With some exciting new tools and expanding asphalt options, let’s plot your new path.