USGS reports Tampa contract sulfur decreased to $76 per long ton in early July 2024 after the March $81 per long ton print. Mid-year softness persisted even as Canadian solid exports and Kazakh stock draws kept seaborne supply ample. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 is at https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-sulfur.pdf.
The year opened at $69 per long ton. March $81 was a modest seasonal bounce. July $76 is a fade, not a collapse. Fourth-quarter $116 is ahead. 2024's path is still-soft-early, then gradual firming into Q4, in the desk's year narrative. July is the still-soft middle.
US Gulf spot sat in the $60s to $75 early year and about $100-110 by late August in BC Insight open commentary. Vancouver averaged only $78 January-July. Three North American ideas, all cheap versus 2022's $481 Tampa peak and 2025's $310 October.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. A $76 Tampa contract does not pay a $150-plus remelt chain. De-blocking that Argus described in August was forming-led, Cheecham, not FOB-led. Kazakh 1.2 million tonne stock sales and Saudi 0.15 million tonnes a quarter were programme-led. Surplus had three suppliers who were not waiting on $238 FOB.
Indonesia's July 425,000 tonne sulfur import spike, up more than 400 percent, is the metals bid in the same month as $76 Tampa. Phosphate soft, nickel switching to sulfur burning. The $76 print is phosphate. It is not the whole demand book.
US 2024 production easing toward 8.2 million tonnes in MCS 2025, from 8.65 million in 2023, is a slightly tighter domestic balance under a still-quiet contract. Apparent consumption would later print 9.36 million tonnes in MCS 2026's 2024 line. Net import reliance stayed in the teens.
Canada at 5.06 million tonnes 2024 in MCS 2026, VFPA 3.35 million tonnes Vancouver, 900,000 tonnes molten rail. The $76 contract prices the molten-rail door. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.
Figures follow USGS MCS 2025.