U.S. Gulf:
Spot sulfuric acid price ideas continued to be heard at the $135-$140/mt CFR level, steady from one week earlier.
Gulf Coast:
Sulacid delivered to the U.S. Gulf Coast was quoted in the $85-$110/st range for 2021 agreements.
Midwest:
Pricing was reported in the $85-$110/st DEL range for delivery to the Midwest.
West Coast:
Sources pegged West Coast market contracts in the $100-$130/st DEL range for 2021.
Brazil:
Tons headed into Brazil were expected to run at a general $150-$155/mt CFR level, unmoved from the prior report.
India:
A nationwide oxygen shortage led India’s Supreme Court to greenlight a proposal from Vedanta to temporarily allow oxygen production at the shuttered Sterlite copper smelter, closed since mid-2018 following the police shooting deaths of 13 people protesting at the site.
Under the ruling, Sterlite will be permitted to produce concentrated oxygen for medical purposes for a period of four months. The COVID-19 crisis at India has seen patients turned away from hospitals due in part to a lack of medical oxygen, according to numerous reports.
Vedanta has lobbied incessantly for the smelter’s reopening over the last three years, only to be consistently denied, and the current court ruling prohibits a return to copper production. The 400,000 mt/y nameplate smelter is also capable of churning out 1.2 million mt/y of sulfuric acid, as well as sizable amounts of phosphoric acid.