On 1 January 2026 the 2025 edition of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code became the mandatory edition. If you order stainless steel or nickel alloy pipe, flanges or fittings for a project governed by Section II or the B31 piping codes, that date matters more than most people in the supply chain realise — not because the grade designations changed, but because the specifications those grades live in were revised, and because the specification revisions are what your certificate holder’s quality system is now audited against.
This article sets out what is verifiable about the 2025 edition, and separates it clearly from the rumour mill. Everything material-specific quoted below comes from the ASME BPVC Section II material specification texts; everything date-specific comes from named public sources.
The dates first
The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code is published on a two-year cycle with a 1 July publication date. The 2025 edition was released on 1 July 2025, and became mandatory six months later on 1 January 2026. The next edition is scheduled for 1 July 2027.
The National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors — the organisation that registers data reports for ASME-manufactured pressure equipment — confirms the same date independently: the 2025 revisions to the ASME BPV Code and NBIC report forms became mandatory on 1 January 2026, and data report forms submitted on outdated forms are returned for correction.
| Milestone | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| BPVC 2025 edition published | 1 July 2025 | ASME / PED Online |
| BPVC 2025 mandatory; 2025 data report forms required | 1 January 2026 | ASME / National Board |
| Next edition scheduled | 1 July 2027 | PED Online |
| ASME B16.5-2025 flanges published | 30 May 2025 | ASME / NSAI |
| ASME B16.47-2025 large-diameter flanges published | 30 May 2025 | ASME / NSAI |
One structural change is worth noting because it catches people out: the 2025 edition discontinued the separate addenda cycle. Material changes are no longer arriving as addenda you can wait for — they are inside the new edition. That changes how you track specification revisions, because there is no longer an intermediate document to watch for.
What changed in Section II specifically
Section II Part A (ferrous) and Part B (non-ferrous) both received general updates to their adopted material specifications — roughly 30 specifications in Part A and 13 in Part B. The Statement of Policy on the Use of ASME Material Specifications was revised in both parts to clarify the committee’s position on scope notes and terminology. Mandatory Appendix II, which governs the tables of acceptable material specifications and editions, was revised to clarify the phrase “all acceptable editions”.
For a buyer, the phrase that matters is acceptable editions. That is the mechanism by which a specification revision reaches your purchase order without anyone rewriting the purchase order. Your order says SA-312. The II-200 table determines which edition of SA-312 is acceptable. When SA-312 is revised in a new BPVC edition, the acceptable edition changes with it — which is precisely why the same purchase order that was compliant last year can point at a different specification revision today.
Three new specifications were added to Part A in the 2025 edition: SA-859/SA-859M for age-hardening alloy steel forgings, SA-1091/SA-1091M for creep-strength enhanced ferritic alloy steel castings, and SA-ISO898-1 for carbon and alloy steel fasteners. SF-568M, the metric externally threaded fastener specification, was removed. If a welding procedure specification, a purchase order or a quality manual cites SF-568M, that reference is now to a deleted specification.
The grade designations you order by did not change
This is the point buyers most often get wrong when a new Code edition lands. The familiar grades are still the familiar grades. Reading directly from the Section II specification texts:
| Specification | Grade | UNS | Cr (%) | Ni (%) | Mo (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SA-312/SA-312M | TP304L | S30403 | 18.0–20.0 | 8.0–11.0 | — |
| SA-312/SA-312M | TP316L | S31603 | 16.0–18.0 | 10.0–14.0 | 2.00–3.00 |
| SA-312/SA-312M | TP316H | S31609 | 16.0–18.0 | 10.0–14.0 | 2.00–3.00 |
| SA-312/SA-312M | TP321 | S32100 | 17.0–19.0 | 9.0–12.0 | — |
| SA-312/SA-312M | TP347H | S34709 | 17.0–19.0 | 9.0–13.0 | — |
| SA-789/SA-789M | S31803 | S31803 | 21.0–23.0 | 4.5–6.5 | 2.5–3.5 |
| SA-789/SA-789M | S32205 | S32205 | 22.0–23.0 | 4.5–6.5 | 3.0–3.5 |
Two traps in reading chemistry tables are worth repeating, because both produce silently wrong material. First, column order is not consistent across specifications. The SA-312/SA-312M chemical table lists chromium before nickel. The SA-789/SA-789M and SA-182/SA-182M chemical tables list nickel before chromium. Reading any of them positionally without reading the header first will swap the two values — and a 316L with 10–14% chromium and 16–18% nickel is not a stainless steel anyone should be welding into a process line.
Second, stainless steel pipe is SA-312, not SA-316. The A316 / A304 designations people use commercially for pipe are the ASTM form of the grade; the ASME specification that carries them for pipe is SA-312. SA-182 covers forged flanges, fittings and valves. SA-789 covers ferritic-austenitic (duplex) tubing. Conflating these is one of the most common specification errors we see in inbound enquiries, and it is worth checking before a purchase order is issued rather than after a rejection at goods-in.
What a buyer should actually do now
Three practical steps, none of which requires you to re-engineer anything:
- Check the edition on your specification. If your material specification or purchase order calls out ASME BPVC without an edition year, add one. The requirement is now live, not upcoming.
- Audit for deleted and revised specifications. Sweep your quality documentation and any WPS or PQR for references to SF-568M, which was removed in the 2025 edition. Then confirm that the material specifications you use have been re-read in their current adopted edition.
- Confirm the acceptable edition of each material specification. Because Mandatory Appendix II was revised, do not assume the edition your project has historically used is still the acceptable one. Ask — it is a one-line question and it is much cheaper than a non-conformance at construction.
One caution on scope. We have set out here what we could verify: the Code and B16 edition dates, the Section II Part A and Part B revision scope, the new and deleted specifications, and the grade chemistry read from the specification texts themselves. We have deliberately not reproduced pressure-temperature derating tables or allowable stress values, because those live in Section II Part D and in the B16 dimensional standards, and a quotation or a purchase order should never rely on a secondary summary of them. If you need a rating at a specific temperature for a specific material group, that is a table lookup in the current edition, not an inference.
If your project is moving to the 2025 edition and you want material supplied against the current specification revisions, send us the grade, size range and quantity and we will quote against the specification as it now stands, with the mill test certificates to suit. Message us on WhatsApp or through our contact page and we will come back the same working day.
Related reading: our nickel alloy seamless pipe range covers Alloy 625, 825, C-276 and C-22 in the sizes and schedules normally required for corrosion and high-temperature service, and our pipe and tube product range lists the stock specifications and standards we hold.
