Argus noted July 2023 Vancouver sulfur loadings were disrupted by a 13-day strike. By August 2024, January-August exports were still 15 percent above the prior year at 2.27 million tonnes. Base-effect and de-blocking both supported the 2024 export rebound. The item is at https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2611033-vancouver-sulphur-exports-rise-20pc-in-aug.
A 13-day strike is a loader outage, not a Claus outage. Tonnes that did not load in July 2023 sat in pad or in rail cars. Comparing 2024 with 2023 year-to-date therefore mixes a recovery from a labour disruption with a genuine forming-led increase. Argus named both. The desk will keep both.
Full-year 2023 VFPA sulphur was 3.10 million tonnes. 2024 3.35 million, up 8 percent. The 15 percent January-August gap is wider than the annual 8 percent because the strike sat inside the 2023 comparison window. Annual figures wash some of the base-effect. They do not wash South Cheecham and de-blocking.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through this stem. Labour at the port is a stem risk the same way wildfire is an upstream risk. 2024's 13-day memory is why a later 2026 Lac la Biche fire note was read as production-risk, not as FOB. Loaders, not AIS, set whether Alberta blocks become cargo.
Tampa $76 in early July 2024, USGS, is a soft contract in the month the 2024 year-to-date comparison was being made. Volume up 15 percent at soft FOB is term offtake. 2025's volume up 5 percent at triple FOB is remelt economics. Two different up years.
About 900,000 tonnes of 2024 molten rail to the US did not need the Vancouver loaders that struck in 2023. Two corridors again. A port strike does not stop tank cars south.
August 2024's 320,000 tonnes, up 20 percent month on month, is the rebound month inside the 2.27 million tonne year-to-date. China 180,000 tonnes of that August.
Figures follow Argus. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.