Argus Sulphur mid-May 2022 domestic Chinese pricing stood near Yn4,000-4,020 per tonne ex-works from river warehouses, with about 10,000 tonnes of trades reported around Yn4,000-4,030 per tonne. Elevated domestic prices coexisted with still-high import CFR until the July policy shock. The 26 May sample that carries the print is at https://view.argusmedia.com/rs/584-BUW-606/images/Argus%20Sulphur%20%282022-05-26%29.pdf.
Yn4,000 per tonne is a domestic ex-works number, not a Vancouver FOB. At then-prevailing exchange rates it sat in the same expensive neighbourhood as $471 June CIF and $478 Vancouver FOB. Chinese phosphate plants were paying spike prices for both domestic and imported sulfur. That is a tight physical market, not a paper-only event. Huaxicun would halt on 16 June.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. Canadian granules into Yangtze plants competed with this Yn4,000 river-port offer on a freight-adjusted basis. When domestic is Yn4,000 and import CIF is $400-plus, both doors are expensive. July's quota would crash both. May is the last month they were both expensive together.
About 10,000 tonnes of reported trades is a small visible clip, not a national total. Treat it as a price discovery print from the sample sheet, not as China's consumption. Second-quarter imports of 2.4 million tonnes, up 50 percent, are the seaborne total. Domestic production, later USGS 19.4 million tonnes in 2023, is the larger book.
October 2021 inspections had already constrained export DAP. Mid-May 2022 domestic sulfur at decade-high neighbourhoods, after 2021 peaks near Yn2,200, is the inland continuation of that tightness. 2021 China Chemical Information Weekly had put December import CFR near $310. May 2022 domestic Yn4,000 is a further step up.
Tampa $481 in April, USGS, is the Florida rhyme. TFI plus 198 percent through March is the cost-shock rhyme. Licensed weekly grids are not restated. The Yn4,000-4,020 band is the public sample's domestic print.
Buyers who paid Yn4,000 in May were the same buyers who leaned on domestic sulfur in August at a fraction of that when import CFR hit $95. The May print is why the crash was violent. There was a long way down.
Figures follow the Argus sample. Mid-May river-port Yn4,000 is the China-domestic price chapter of the spike.