BC Insight reports Indonesian sulfur imports in the first seven months of 2024 at 1.92 million tonnes, up 39 percent year on year, with July alone at 425,000 tonnes, up more than 400 percent year on year, as sulfur burners displaced acid imports. July acid imports fell 64 percent year on year to 64,000 tonnes. The nickel feature is at https://www.bcinsight.crugroup.com/2024/09/30/full-speed-ahead-for-indonesian-nickel/.
Four hundred twenty-five thousand tonnes in a month is a Vancouver-sized month, all into one archipelago. Twelve times 425,000 would be 5.1 million tonnes, above Canada's entire recovered output. July was a spike, not the mean. 1.92 million tonnes in seven months is 3.3 million annualized, still a large new bid.
About 1 tonne of sulfur yields about 3 tonnes of acid. Switching from imported acid to burned sulfur is a relative-price decision. S&P and Argus described MHP producers, Halmahera Persada Lygend among them, making that switch as sulfur-burning capacity ramped. July's 64 percent acid-import drop is the customs print of the switch.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. 2024's Indonesian import boom is why metals were a 2025 FOB floor. 2025's 23 percent slip in Vancouver-Indonesia receipts is why origin mix, 76 percent Middle East in the later CRU table, still mattered more than the Canadian stem until Hormuz.
CRU's 6.7 million tonne a year nickel-sulfur path by 2028 starts in this 1.92 million tonne seven-month print. Argus's 5.17 million tonne 2024 HPAL acid demand is the acid-unit version. Both are Sulawesi drinking sulfur units.
Tampa $76 in early July 2024, USGS, is the same month as Indonesia's 425,000 tonne sulfur spike. Phosphate soft, nickel hot. Surplus still cleared both. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.
Halmahera Persada Lygend is named in the S&P and Argus switch description. The desk will not invent other mill quotes.
Figures follow BC Insight, Argus, and S&P as cited.