Category: Outlook & Reviews

Meena Chauhan, Head of Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for sulphur.

This is the 400th issue of Sulphur magazine, now in its 69th year. From its beginnings as the Quarterly Bulletin of the Sulphur Exploration Syndicate, it remains the only magazine dedicated to both the sulphur and sulphuric acid industries.

The economic conversion of phosphogypsum waste into a valuable product has been pursued for decades. Although phosphogypsum is still generally disposed of as waste, industry attitudes are changing and greater use of phosphogypsum will be expected in a circular economy.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned the sulphur market on its head, potentially removing several million tonnes of supply from Russia and Kazakhstan and sending prices skyrocketing.

US refiners have upgraded to take advantage of generally cheaper, sourer crude feeds. However, a ban on oil imports from Russia may make that harder to come by.

The ongoing conflict in Russia-Ukraine remains a key focus for the market in the months ahead. It is unclear whether buyers that are currently doing so will permanently choose non-Russian sulphur sources, but trade flow changes are expected to persist through the rest of 2022.

The Sulphur Community is set to reconvene in Abu Dhabi. CRU and UniverSUL Consulting, with the support of ADNOC, are hosting a new live event, Middle East Sulphur Conference (MEScon), which will take place at the Rosewood Abu Dhabi from 24-26 May 2022.

Sulphur prices keep on climbing. A quick check as I was writing this showed some indicators above $600/t, around four times what they were last year. As the title of this editorial suggests, what goes up must of course eventually come back down, but of course as always the question is: when?

Yara and Mosaic shocked markets with a settlement of $1,625/t c.fr for April, up $490/t on March, and the highest ever price recorded at Tampa, as the removal of Russian and Ukrainian ammonia supply impacted global prices, and Baltic rates soared to $1,500/t. However, April saw some of the global dislocations caused by the Russian conflict begin to ease, while the high prices saw buyers in the US delay purchases, leading to the Tampa price falling back $200/t for May loadings.

Gidara Energy has agreed with the Port of Rotterdam to develop a new waste to methanol facility in the Netherlands: Advanced Methanol Rotterdam (AMR). Gidara will duplicate its Advanced Methanol Amsterdam project as a template for AMR, using Gidara’s patented high temperature Winkler (HTW® ) technology, which converts nonrecyclable waste to renewable fuels. This technology has been used commercially in four other waste to syngas production facilities. AMR will convert around 180,000 t/a of non-recyclable waste into 90,000 t/a of methanol, while capturing all waste streams for use; CO2 will be captured and led to local greenhouses; bottom product residue will be used for cement production; and other streams like ammonia and salts will be sold and put to use as feed stock for other industries and road salt respectively, creating a fully circular concept. The facility is scheduled to start detail engineering and construction in the first half of 2023, when a permit is received, and start production of renewable methanol in 2025.