Tampa: Negotiations between phosphate producers and their sulfur suppliers for deliveries of molten sulfur to Tampa for the second quarter continued last week. Generally, it has been assumed that the price will either remain the same or move up a few dollars.
With the delay of the spring season, phosphate companies have less in operating revenues to spend on sulfur, which may help hold the price down.
The refinery capacity rate rose 0.5 percent last week, from 86.3 percent to 86.8 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The increase was due primarily to turnarounds being completed and units coming back online.
The U.S. EPA has issued a proposed rule to reduce the sulfur in gasoline from 30 ppm to 10 ppm, which has been the standard for sulfur content in gasoline in California. Refinery owners said this would increase the cost of gasoline by $0.06-$0.08/gallon, but clean air advocates said the cost will be closer to $0.01/gallon. The move would reduce emissions and improve the performance of catalytic converters.
Regardless, the amount of sulfur that will be made available will increase, although by exactly how much was not clear.
U.S. Gulf: The price of prill on the Gulf Coast was down in the $135-$140/mt FOB range last week, which was below the Tampa molten price of $150/lt. However, the Tampa price includes transportation.
U.S. Imports: July-February sulfur imports were off 4 percent, to 1.5 million st from the year-ago 1.57 million st, February imports, however, were up 23 percent, to 217,119 st from the year-ago 176,568.
Vancouver: The eyes of the industry were focused on negotiations between phosphate producers and their sulfur suppliers last week at Tampa.
No changes were found in either contract or spot transactions in Vancouver last week. Inventories at China were still increasing, which was not a positive for the Vancouver market.
West Coast: West Coast prices continued to mirror the Vancouver range, running around $145-$155/mt FOB.
Benelux: The price for the first quarter was $195-$210/mt FOB. A new price should be available relatively soon.
ADNOC: The ADNOC price for April moved to $160/mt FOB, up $5/mt from the previous $155/mt FOB.