S&P Global Energy commentary reported Indonesia imported about 2.7 million tonnes of sulfur in 2023, roughly three times the 2020 level, plus about 1 million tonnes of sulfuric acid, about eight times 2020. Coastal sulfur burners began substituting lower-cost elemental sulfur for imported acid. The item is at https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/blog/agriculture/021225-indonesias-strategic-shift-in-mining-and-rising-demand-for-sulfuric-acid.
HPAL nickel is the use. High-pressure acid leach on laterite ore burns sulfur or imports acid. A threefold sulfur import rise in three years is a new seaborne bid that did not exist at this scale when Tampa peaked in 2022. It exists in the soft 2023 surplus. Metals demand can firm sulfur even when phosphate affordability is weak.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. Indonesia is a Pacific destination. VFPA's later 2025 table put Indonesia at 371,000 tonnes, down 13 percent. 2023's 2.7 million tonne national import year is mostly Middle East and other origins, not a Vancouver monopoly. Origin concentration on the Gulf is why Sulawesi can boom while a Pacific alternative still slips in a later year.
CRU later noted Indonesia sulfuric acid imports jumped from about 0.31 million tonnes in 2022 to nearly 1.1 million in 2023, initially met by Japan and South Korea as HPAL projects ramped. The S&P 1 million tonne acid line and CRU's 1.1 million are the same surge. Nickel-related acid demand was on a path from about 3.5 million tonnes a year in 2021 toward much higher mid-decade levels. CRU would later put 2025 near 16 million tonnes.
BC Insight estimated global sulfur consumption for nickel production at 3.5 million tonnes in 2023, from 1.7 million in 2020, mostly from Indonesian HPAL. The 2.7 million tonne Indonesian import print is the seaborne slice of that 3.5 million tonne global nickel-sulfur use. Domestic pyrite and other acid are the rest.
Tampa at $55 per long ton in mid-July 2023, USGS, is the Florida phosphate contract in the same year Indonesia trebled sulfur imports. Two books, one surplus. Canadian FOB at $72 in mid-December did not need Indonesian HPAL to clear 3.10 million tonnes through Vancouver. It needed China, Australia, and term offtake. HPAL is the bid that 2024-26 would test when prices left the $70s.
Argus later put Indonesian HPAL acid demand at about 5.17 million tonnes in 2024 and 7.12 million seen for 2025. January-July 2024 Indonesian sulfur imports of 1.92 million tonnes, up 39 percent, continue this 2023 step. Substitution of elemental sulfur for imported acid is the structural note. It is not a guarantee that Vancouver wins the tonne.
Figures follow S&P Global Energy. Licensed weekly grids are not restated. The 2.7 million tonne 2023 import year is the metals-demand floor under a fertilizer-led surplus.