Argus reported Port of Vancouver solid sulfur exports of 621,000 tonnes in January-February 2025, up 17 percent year on year, with China the top recipient at 278,000 tonnes, Australia 108,000 tonnes, and Indonesia 59,000 tonnes. The item is at https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2670825-vancouver-jan-feb-sulphur-exports-rise-by-17pc. Supportive prices and geopolitics were expected to encourage further de-blocking.
Six hundred twenty-one thousand tonnes in two months is a 3.73 million tonne annualized pace, above the 3.35 million tonne 2024 VFPA year and in the neighbourhood of the 3.51 million tonne 2025 year that later printed. The stem started hot. August's later 5 percent year-on-year dip shows it did not stay at January-February rates every month.
China at 278,000 tonnes is 45 percent of the two-month stem. Full-year China would be 1.30 million tonnes, down 16 percent, a smaller share of a larger year. Early 2025 was still a China-led mix. Brazil's triple and the US's 191 percent full-year jump had not yet rewritten the table.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through this stem. De-blocking, excavate, melt, form, rail, is what supportive prices encourage. Tampa at $116 per long ton at the year open, USGS, was already above 2024's $69 open. Vancouver FOB would average $238 through July versus $78 a year earlier. February is the start of that price permission.
Geopolitics in the same Argus item included the tariff-diversion talk: threats of 25 percent tariffs on US-bound goods from early April, alternative markets via Vancouver, gradual because of logistics contracts. January-February's 17 percent increase is too early to be that diversion. It is China, Australia, and Indonesia lifting more.
Indonesia at 59,000 tonnes in two months, 354,000 annualized, sits near VFPA's full-year 371,000 tonnes. The later January-July 23 percent slip means Indonesia's year was front-loaded in this two-month print. CRU's 16 million tonne nickel-acid path did not show up as a Vancouver Indonesia boom in H1.
Australia at 108,000 tonnes in two months, 648,000 annualized, sits near the full-year 597,000. A steady destination. Heartland had not yet announced the June remelt expansion. Provincial inventory had not yet printed the July 11.66 million tonne low. February is the loading print that those later remelt and inventory stories explain.
Figures follow Argus on Port of Vancouver data. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.