Magazine: Sulphur

The Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) has signed a supply agreement with Germany’s LUMA-International Company.Under the terms of the agreement, JPMC will sell 850,000 t/a of phosphate rock to the German company at international market rates. The agreement was signed by JPMC CEO Abdulwahab Rawad and managing director of LUMA-International Ralf Keller, in the presence of JPMC Chairman Muhammad Thneibat. Thneibat expressed hope that the deal would open wider scopes of cooperation between the JPMC and German companies in the field of phosphate fertilizers, and Keller likewise said that his company was looking forward to more cooperation with the JPMC and new partnerships to produce phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers.

Itafos has announced the appointment of Stephen Shapiro and Isaiah Toback to its board of directors, effective from April 14, 2022. Toback replaces Rory O’Neill as a nominee by its principal shareholder, CL Fertilizers Holding LLC, pursuant to an investor rights agreement between the Company and CLF.

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.

Jochen Geiger of AMETEK Process Instruments reviews SRU process analyser standards, how to choose the right instruments, what to watch out for when selecting the point of installation, responsibilities for the analysers after installation, and how to make best use of the information provided by these analysers. Potential upset conditions and how analysers can help us to understand and mitigate them are also discussed.

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?

The trend for multicomponent analysis of emissions from sulphur recovery units is becoming more widespread. David Inward of Sick reports on a recent field trial to test the suitability of a hot extractive infra-red analyser for this application. In addition to reliably measuring and reporting emissions to air, the analyser is also capable of contributing to reducing overall tail gas emissions by supporting enhanced optimisation of the thermal oxidiser.

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