IndexBox estimates put China's sulfur import value at about $2.3 billion in 2022 after a 2021 surge, up 143 percent in value in 2021. Value later fell sharply to about $1.1 billion in 2023 even as volumes began recovering, reflecting the price collapse from mid-2022 highs. The item is at https://www.indexbox.io/blog/china-sulphur-imports-2023/.
June 2022 import price near $471 per tonne CIF and June volumes near 948,000 tonnes are the peak. September $129 per tonne, down 62.5 percent month on month, and 544,000 tonnes, down 13.2 percent, are the crash. A $2.3 billion year is those months averaged with the rest. 2023's 8.8 million tonnes at $1.1 billion is more tonnes, less money.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. Canadian granules that loaded at $476-480 FOB in May, Argus sample, are inside that $2.3 billion Chinese bill. Canadian granules that loaded after the crash are inside the hangover. January-October Chinese imports of 6.65 million tonnes, down 22 percent, already showed the volume contraction. Value peaked anyway because the first half was expensive.
Canada would be a 2023 top-three origin at about 1.2 million tonnes. 2022's value peak does not publish a Canadian dollar share in the IndexBox 2023 blog item. Treat the $2.3 billion as a national Chinese import bill, not a Vancouver invoice. VFPA's 2.79 million tonne harbour year is the Canadian volume. CIF China is the delivered price.
Tampa $481 in April and $90 in the fourth quarter, USGS, is the Florida rhyme of the same value-then-volume sequence. US 2022 unit value $150 versus 2023's $100 is the American version. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.
Phosphate-export inspections from October 2021 and July 2022's de-facto quota are the policy that created the first-half pull and the second-half destruction. DAP operating rates 40 to 50 percent at river ports by end-July, Argus, are the plant-level print. $2.3 billion is the customs-value print.
Domestic Chinese sulfur production, USGS later about 19.4 million tonnes in 2023, and Argus's 40 percent growth call toward 2025, are why 2023 could recover volume at half the bill. Import dependence stayed large. The price of that dependence collapsed.
Figures follow IndexBox. The $2.3 billion 2022 import-value peak is the China-price chapter of the spike year.