Tampa: Perhaps the loss of production at Miss Phos was enough to push supply past demand. Mosaic was continuing to get requests to sell its molten sulfur above its contract levels.
Last week, Mosaic agreed to purchase a vessel of molten in the mid-$160s/lt DEL, which was about $15/lt DEL less than its contract price. The company’s sulfur inventories were already high, and the new buy will make them flush.
Although negotiations for new third-quarter contract prices will probably not start for another couple of weeks, it appeared likely the new rate will be lower than the current $180/lt DEL.
Backlogs from the Canadian Pacific rail strike had pretty well cleared by last week. No significant problems resulted from the delays.
Refineries continued at a blistering rate last week. A week earlier, the Department of Energy reported the refinery operating capacity rate rose 1.9 percent, from 89.1 percent to 91 percent. Last week, DOE said the operating capacity rate moved even higher to 92 percent. To put the rate in perspective, the operating capacity rate a year ago was 86.1 percent, and the five-year average was 88.3 percent.
Although gasoline prices have edged down during the past couple of weeks, the rate was not reflected at the gas pump. It will also not push the amount of sulfur recovered by much, if at all, because refineries have been using sweet crude, which has a premium of about $15/barrel over high-sulfur sour crude.
U.S. Import: April imports were up 3 percent, to 205,340 st from the year-ago 198,573 st. July-April imports were off 2 percent, to 1.97 million from the year-ago 2.02 million.
Vancouver: There were no delays remaining as a result of the Canadian Pacific rail strike, and deliveries into Vancouver were back to normal.
Prices at Vancouver for both spot and contract tons were said to be flat. Prices in China, its major customer, may have weakened about $5/mt.
Benelux: The current price range was $210-$228/mt FOB.