Argus Sulphur assessments for May 2022 put Qatar Sulphur Price at $460 per tonne FOB Ras Laffan and Mesaieed, with UAE OSP and Kuwait KSP at $470 per tonne FOB. Middle East excluding Iran second-quarter FOB was $380-405 per tonne amid still-elevated phosphate-linked demand. The sample is at https://view.argusmedia.com/rs/584-BUW-606/images/Argus%20Sulphur%20%282022-05-26%29.pdf.
These producer markers are restated from a public sample already in the intel file, not as a licensed weekly grid. July QSP would be $428. August QSP would be $77, down $351. May $460 is the high plateau. Vancouver $476-480 FOB on the same sample sat above those Gulf markers. Canadian solid was not a discount origin in May 2022.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. A $460 QSP and a $478 Vancouver FOB is a world in which both Pacific Canadian and Gulf granules cleared expensive phosphate bids. China's June CIF peak near $471 is the delivered confirmation. Second-quarter Chinese imports of 2.4 million tonnes, up 50 percent, are the volume confirmation.
Al Fadhili, Barzan, and Al Zour ramps had been the 2021 incremental Gulf supply story. May 2022 is those tonnes plus Saudi, UAE, and Kuwait solids priced at $460-470. USGS UAE production near 6.0 million tonnes for 2022 is the annual. May is the month that annual paid spike FOB.
Tampa $481 in early April, USGS, had already printed. May Gulf markers at $460-470 are the seaborne rhyme, a month later. TFI's plus 198 percent through March is the input-cost backdrop. Russia's February invasion is the risk-premium backdrop. Phosphate restocking ahead of constrained Chinese DAP is the demand backdrop.
Two months later the same QSP would be $77. Affordability broke. The May $460 print is why later 2026 $705 Tampa and $1,100 Gulf solids invite comparison in level while remembering that 2022's peak reversed inside a quarter. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.
Kuwait Al Zour sulfur entering commissioning toward early 2022, in late-2021 price-trend notes, is the incremental Kuwaiti solid behind KSP $470. Qatar Barzan, delayed by COVID into 2021, is behind QSP $460. Incremental Gulf capacity did not prevent the spike. It populated the crash.
Figures follow the Argus sample. May QSP $460 and OSP/KSP $470 are the Gulf marker chapter of the 2022 peak.