Argus August 2024 coverage said more de-blocking was underway from Alberta's substantial sulfur blocks even as some oil-sands plants and upgraders reduced production, because new forming capacity lifted remelting and reforming rates into Vancouver. The item is at https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2611033-vancouver-sulphur-exports-rise-20pc-in-aug.
That sentence is the 2024 version of CRU's price-elastic remelt contrast. Forming capacity, South Cheecham after May, is the bottleneck that had been capping how much pad could become cargo. When the priller ran, block moved even if some upgraders cut Claus recovery. Recovery and remelt are different hoses.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through Vancouver. August's 320,000 tonnes, up 20 percent from July, is the harbour print of that de-blocking. Full-year 3.35 million tonnes is the annual print. Provincial stock still sat near the derived 12 million tonne 2024 neighbourhood. The 11.66 million tonne July 2025 low is the next year's print, after FOB tripled.
Some oil-sands output cuts in 2024 are a hydrocarbon story. Sulfur recovery tracks those cuts. De-blocking can still rise if forming was the prior constraint. The desk will not invent which operators cut. Argus said some plants and upgraders reduced production. Named forming news is South Cheecham.
Tampa $76 in early July, USGS, and Vancouver FOB $78 January-July are still soft. De-blocking in a soft year is forming-led, not FOB-led. 2025 de-blocking is FOB-led. Both move yellow tonnes. The economics differ.
About 900,000 tonnes of Canadian liquid rail to the US in 2024 is the molten book that did not need Cheecham prills. Two corridors, one provincial pile.
Kazakh and Saudi programme draws were still adding inelastic seaborne tonnes. Canadian de-blocking added price-and-forming-elastic tonnes. Surplus persisted. Volume at Vancouver still grew 8 percent.
Figures follow Argus. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.