Tampa: Sources noted a new trend from domestic sulfur suppliers who appear to have begun holding excess tons of sulfur in reserve, presumably to offer internationally at a price premium to Tampa.
Sources said sulfur volume had historically been concluded at the settlement of the quarterly contract, and phosphate producers didn’t have a way to secure extra tons if needed. The new practice would signal a change to that limitation, potentially allowing buyers the flexibility to make emergency acquisitions as needed, but for a price.
Despite the ongoing outage by the Syncrude refinery, which reportedly produces in the neighborhood of 1,000 mt/d of sulfur when operational, phosphate producers reported no difficulty in securing volumes needed to keep plant operations running at full steam.
U.S. refinery operating rates checked in at 91 percent for the week ending April 25, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The rate was unchanged from the previous week, but considerably higher than last year’s 84.4 percent and the five-year average of 86.6 percent.
The second-quarter price for molten sulfur at Tampa was $133/lt DEL, an increase of $23/lt from the first-quarter price of $110/lt DEL.
U.S. Gulf: Sulfur sold from the Gulf of Mexico was tabbed at $150-$160/mt FOB.
Vancouver: The price of sulfur in the Vancouver spot market was unchanged at $140-$160/mt FOB.
Sulfur shipped from Alberta was quoted at (-)$30-(+)$85/mt FOB, also unchanged from the previous week.
West Coast: The West Coast price of sulfur was reported at $140-$155/mt FOB, unchanged from the previous week.
Benelux: The price of Benelux sulfur for the second-quarter was $158-$172/mt, a $28/mt hike from the first-quarter price of $130-$144/mt.
ADNOC: The April price of ADNOC sulfur was $170/mt. An updated price for May is expected soon.