Argus mid-2025 reporting put the January-July Vancouver FOB average at $238 per tonne, more than triple the $78 per tonne average a year earlier, clearing the more-than-$150 per tonne export-process cost hurdle that governs Alberta remelt economics. The item that carries the inventory draw also carries this average: https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2731279-alberta-sulfur-inventories-fall-as-exports-climb.
The 15 April desk date is early for a January-July average. The public file later filled the window. The April story is the FOB hurdle becoming visible as Tampa jumped to $270 per long ton in early April and January-February Vancouver loadings printed 621,000 tonnes, up 17 percent. The $238 average is how that spring is remembered once July closed.
Seventy-eight dollars FOB in the prior-year window did not pay remelt, rail, forming, and terminal. Block was poured. Two hundred thirty-eight dollars did pay it. Block was melted. The 11.66 million tonne July provincial print, lowest since May 2019, is the stock consequence. Heartland's June remelt expansion to 700 tonnes a day is the capacity consequence.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through the Vancouver stem. A triple in FOB is a triple in the bid for those formed tonnes. Solid exports of 2.04 million tonnes in January-July, up nearly 5 percent, show volumes responding without matching the price multiple. Byproduct recovery does not sprint. Remelt and loaders do, inside a ceiling.
USGS Tampa at $116 in January and $270 in early April is the Florida path that ran beside this Vancouver average. Pacific solid at $238 January-July and Florida molten at $270 April are the two-hub 2025 spring. Licensed weekly grids are not pasted. The open Argus average and the USGS Tampa prints are.
CRU's 1.9 million tonne 2025 deficit is the balance. Metals demand, including Indonesian burners, and fertilizer restock are the bids. China still imported 9.61 million tonnes of elemental sulfur in 2025, paying 134 percent more. Vancouver's share of that book was a 1.30 million tonne full-year China line, down 16 percent, plus a tripled Brazil.
Early October FOB at $305-310 shows the average was not the peak. $238 is the first seven months. The autumn spike is the next story. 2024's $78 is the base the remelt economics had been waiting on.
Figures follow Argus open news. Licensed weekly assessment grids are not redistributed.