Tag: Sulphur

CRU’s Sulphur + Sulphuric Acid 2023 Conference and Exhibition takes place at the Sheraton New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 6-8 November.

The use of low-chloride fertilizers is a proven strategy for managing chloride sensitivity in crops and avoiding excess chloride in soils. ICL offers a wide range of crop nutrient products for this purpose. Patricia Imas, agronomist at the company, outlines the main options.

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media. Urea: While prices mostly fell in mid-August, the main development was the massive purchase of Chinese urea by Indian Potash Limited. IPL confirmed that, out of a total tender settlement of 1.759 million tonnes, one million tonnes will be met by Chinese exporters. This far exceeded expectations and added to the already bearish sentiment of most market players.

Many crops are sensitive to chloride due to a genetic susceptibility. Similarly, crops can become stressed when soil salinity reaches high levels, a situation that typically occurs in water scarce regions. So, when is low-chloride crop nutrition needed? Dr Heike Thiel of K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH provides some answers.

Applications of chloride-containing fertilizers need to be carefully managed for crops such as berries, broad beans, citrus fruits, nuts, potatoes and stone fruits. Selecting chloride-free nutrient sources instead can offer distinct advantages.

Market Insight courtesy of Argus Media. Urea: There was a general price upswing for both urea and ammonium nitrate in mid-June, while ammonium sulphate and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) prices remained weak. Urea prices were pushed up in most regions as traders sought to secure cargoes across the globe – resulting in granular urea deals from the Baltic ($260-280/t f.o.b.), Egypt ($312-335/t f.o.b.), Middle East ($253-280/t f.o.b.) and China ($308-310/t f.o.b.).

Tessenderlo Kerley International recently published a tree nut crop brochure. This article draws on the brochure to highlight the importance of two essential nutrients, calcium and sulphur, as part of a balanced fertilization programme for nut crops.

This June marks a milestone for this magazine; a platinum jubilee since the very first issue of the magazine was printed in 1953. It began life as the Quarterly Bulletin of the Sulphur Exploration Syndicate. The Syndicate was created in 1952, and was backed by nine major chemical producers, mainly in Britain and the US, who were concerned about dwindling world supplies of sulphur. Though some of these companies have vanished by the wayside over the years, including F.W. Berk and Co. Ltd, British Titan Products, Brotherton & Co., and Charles Tenant & Sons Ltd, others remain household names to this day, including Monsanto, Courtaulds (now part of Akzo-Nobel), and Dunlop (now owned by Goodyear), while Fisons’ fertilizer division was sold to Norsk Hydro in 1982 and today trades as part of Yara.

Sulphur dust is one of the greatest hazards when producing and handling solid sulphur, and methods for its suppression are vitally important to prevent fire and explosion.

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