Microcrystalline Wax & Petrolatum (Petroleum Jelly)

Microcrystalline wax and petroleum jelly bought on drop melting point, penetration and the refinery's certificate

Microcrystalline wax is the heavier petroleum wax, with about 30-60 carbon atoms against 20-40 for paraffin wax, a higher melting point, and a finer crystal structure because it is made up largely of isoparaffins and cycloparaffins rather than the straight-chain paraffins that make up about 90% of paraffin wax. Petrolatum, or petroleum jelly, is an oily, viscous, semi-solid wax separated from the vacuum distillation bottoms. Both are specified on drop melting point by ASTM D127, the test method used primarily for petrolatums and other microcrystalline waxes, with penetration by ASTM D1321 for the wax, oil content, colour and odour on the certificate of analysis, and cosmetic or pharmaceutical grades are certified by the refinery to the pharmacopoeia the buyer names. The customs codes are HS 2712.90 for microcrystalline wax, with other petroleum waxes, and HS 2712.10 for petroleum jelly. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 2712.10 total USD 384 million and about 168,000 MT across 87 reporters, led by India at USD 102 million and 60,350 MT, Germany USD 67 million and 33,900 MT, the USA USD 65 million and 26,100 MT and the Netherlands USD 31 million. HS 2712.90, which also carries slack and semi-refined wax, totals USD 1.76 billion, led by the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, China and Egypt. Those are declared export values, not offers. Japan's Nippon Seiro makes paraffin and microcrystalline waxes and exports to about 30 countries, and Malaysia's gas-to-liquids plant at Bintulu launched a synthetic microcrystalline wax in 2024.

The buyers are cosmetics and personal-care makers, pharmaceutical formulators, adhesive and hot-melt producers, rubber and tyre compounders, cable-filling compound makers, candle makers and distributors, and the offer is a price per MT for a stated drop melting point, penetration, colour and grade. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers microcrystalline wax and petrolatum from refineries in India, Germany, the USA, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, with the refinery and lot named on the certificate of analysis, a certificate of origin that matches the load port, the producer's safety data sheet and, for cosmetic or pharmaceutical use, the producer's grade certificate. Offers without a named refinery, or with a load port outside the stated origin, are set aside. Slabs, pastilles and drums move in 20-ft or 40-ft dry containers on FOB, CFR and CIF terms; packs and minimum orders are confirmed per product and pack. Send the product, drop melting point, penetration, grade, volume 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.