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Nitrogen+Syngas 387 Jan-Feb 2024

A return to the fold


Editorial

A return to the fold

“The need for technical knowledge and insights has never been more important”

We are very pleased to be able to tell you that, as of this issue, Nitrogen+Syngas magazine has a new publisher. Or rather, an old publisher, as the magazine is now once again part of the CRU Group.

Nitrogen magazine, as it originally began life in 1959, was started by the British Sulphur Corporation, which was in turn acquired by CRU in the early 1990s. Over this time Nitrogen’s coverage gained first methanol and then syngas more generally as co-products, reflecting the way that the industry was increasingly looking at syngas-based compounds as a part of a portfolio for major gas- or coal-based developments, and particularly the interest that there was – and is – in opportunities for integrating these processes for greater efficiency and more diverse product streams.

In 2007, CRU’s Publishing division was spun off as a separate entity, BCInsight Ltd, as CRU sought to focus on its core activities of analysis, consultancy and conferences, but the new company retained the magazine staff who had been working on it for many years, and continued a close relationship with our former colleagues at CRU, liaising especially over CRU’s industry conferences.

The current move back to CRU is in part a result of the changing nature of how people seek and acquire knowledge and network in a digitally saturated age. Nitrogen+Syngas will now be housed within CRU’s new Communities business unit, headed by Nicola Coslett, CEO of CRU Communities, which will seek to strengthen engagement and facilitate knowledge-sharing and networking across the fertilizer and wider chemicals industries.

The move will also allow us access to CRU’s Fertilizer consultancy division, with its unrivalled team of dedicated and highly experienced analysts, enhancing our ability to deliver even more comprehensive and insightful information to our readers. With so many new entrants into the ammonia, phosphate and fertilizer industries, the need for technical knowledge and insights has never been more important.

In the longer term, it will also allow us to make improvements to our product offerings that were beyond the resources of a small publishing company, and we hope to have more news on that in due course. But rest assured that the team writing and publishing the title remains the same as always. Myself and Lisa Connock, our Technical – and now Managing – Editor, and Marlene Vaz, our Sales Manager, will look forward to seeing you under our new guise at CRU’s Nitrogen+Syngas conference in Gothenburg on March 4th-6th, alongside our new CRU colleagues.

Latest in Outlook & Reviews

Price Trends

The global sulphur market’s bullish momentum from late 2025 has firmly carried over into the New Year, with prices pushing forward across most key regions despite a slow return to spot trading after the holiday break. With spot prices now past their 2022 highs and testing levels not seen since the 2008 peak, affordability has become the market’s central theme. The market remains divergent, with some buyers forced to accept the rally due to tight supply, while others, particularly in China, are showing clear signs of demand destruction.

Market Outlook

• CRU’s latest global sulphur forecast is for a January price peak before a decline, with the key downside risk being a sharper correction if the supply deficit closes faster than expected. The global sulphur market’s upward momentum has been slowing, with attention shifting to geopolitical risks in Iran. Despite limited physical disruption being reported, the upside risk to prices could be substantial. Following the US bombing of an Iranian nuclear facility back in June, supply from Iran became bottlenecked, despite good production levels, as vessel owners became unwilling to call at ports like Bandar Abbas due to the increased risk.