IndexBox reported China's September 2022 sulfur import price at $129 per tonne CIF, down 62.5 percent from the prior month, breaking the 2022 uptrend. September imports were 544,000 tonnes, down 13.2 percent month on month. Top volume suppliers included South Korea 90,000 tonnes, Iran 88,000 tonnes, and Canada 71,000 tonnes. The item is at https://www.indexbox.io/blog/china-sulphur-price-in-september-2022/.
June's peak near $471 per tonne CIF and 948,000 tonnes is the other bracket. $129 and 544,000 tonnes is the crash in a monthly customs table. Qatar August QSP at $77 FOB from $428 in July, and Argus CFR China at $95 on 4 August, are the August prints. September $129 is the first full month of cheap CIF after that collapse.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. Canada's 71,000 tonnes in September is the stem in a down month. Korea and Iran ahead of Canada that month is origin substitution at distressed CIF. First-half Canadian loadings at $476-480 FOB are not this month. This month is leftover tonnes into a quota-constrained phosphate book.
January-October Chinese imports would total 6.65 million tonnes, down 22 percent. September is inside that contraction. Vancouver January-October 2.39 million tonnes, already above full-year 2021, means Canadian granules found other doors. 71,000 tonnes into China in September is not the whole harbour.
Tampa $352 in mid-July heading toward $90 in the fourth quarter, USGS, lags this $129 CIF. Molten contracts catch seaborne crashes late. Licensed weekly grids are not restated. The $129 per tonne figure is IndexBox customs-linked.
DAP operating rates 40 to 50 percent at river ports by end-July, Argus, are why 544,000 tonnes is a down month. Phosphate plants that had pulled 2.4 million tonnes in the second quarter at 50 percent year-on-year growth were no longer pulling. Domestic Chinese sulfur filled some of the gap.
The 62.5 percent month-on-month price drop is the cleanest open monthly print of the crash. Keg River's about 80 percent Vancouver spot decline over about five weeks is the Pacific FOB rhyme. Two percentages, one Chinese quota.
Figures follow IndexBox. September $129 CIF and 544,000 tonnes is the China-customs chapter of the 2022 collapse.