Crude Coal Tar (Coke Oven Tar for Distillers & Carbon Black Plants)

High-temperature coke oven tar by water, specific gravity, viscosity and QI, for tar distillers

Crude coal tar is the black, viscous liquid obtained from recovery-type coke ovens while coal is coked for metallurgical coke. Only by-product ovens collect it: they recover the volatile products of coking for use as fuel or chemical feedstock, while other ovens burn those volatiles to heat themselves. A by-product plant yields around 30-50 litres of tar per tonne of dry coal. Collected bulk tar has a specific gravity of around 1.2 and a viscosity of 300-3,000 cSt at 35 °C, and plants normally aim to bring its moisture down to 2-3%. Typical coal tar is about 10% naphthalene by weight, and a distiller splits it into oils, naphthalene and pitch, the residue that holds the non-volatile part of the tar. The distiller buying crude tar therefore tests water, which is freight and not tar, and quinoline insolubles (QI), the solids that do not distil and stay in the pitch, alongside specific gravity, viscosity, ash and naphthalene content. Customs declare it under HS 2706.00, which covers tar distilled from coal, lignite or peat and other mineral tars, whether or not dehydrated or partially distilled, so the code is wider than coke oven tar. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 2706.00 total USD 716 million and about 1.54 million MT across 41 reporters. The largest by value were Poland at USD 158 million and 335,200 MT (22.1%), Indonesia at USD 107 million and 274,000 MT, the USA at USD 79 million on only 11,600 MT, and Türkiye at USD 67 million and 156,100 MT; Malaysia, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Austria and Brazil each declared USD 19-49 million. Those are declared export values, not offers.

The buyer is a tar distiller making pitch, creosote and carbon black oils and naphthalene, or a carbon black producer, since coal tar is one of the materials carbon black is made from. At sea, chapter 17 of the IBC Code lists coal tar as a MARPOL Annex II cargo with both safety and pollution hazards, at pollution category X and ship type 2, so parcels go in chemical tankers certified for it. IARC classifies coal tars, and occupational exposure during coal-tar distillation, as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1), and OSHA limits coal tar pitch volatiles to 0.2 mg/m³. Feedstock cargoes are worked on documents, not on paper chains: the coke plant named on the certificate of analysis, SGS or Intertek sampling and quantity survey at load, and a named buyer or charterer; offers built on tank storage receipts, dip tests, SCO/ICPO/FCO sequences or advance fees are not worked. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers crude coal tar from producers in Poland, Indonesia, Türkiye, the Netherlands, France, Slovakia, Austria and Brazil to tar distillers and carbon black plants, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Send the water and QI limits, specific gravity, tonnage, delivery mode and discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.