What drives bitumen demand in China's road construction and beyond?

What drives bitumen demand in China's road construction and beyond?
Bitumen demand is dominated by infrastructure, with road construction and maintenance absorbing about 80 percent of consumption, followed by building waterproofing at roughly 15 percent and minor volumes into marine fuel and coking. China's 2024 output fell about 18 percent to 2.53 million tons while demand reached 2.85 million tons, leaving a gap filled by imports of roughly 300,000 to 500,000 tons, mainly from South Korea and Malaysia. Production is concentrated among the three major state oil companies, which hold about 80 percent of capacity and effectively set the benchmark price that local refiners follow.