Argus Vancouver FOB spot prices reached $305-310 per tonne on 2 October 2025, up about $192.50 per tonne on a midpoint basis from the same period in 2024. The open-news item is at https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2738944-vancouver-sulfur-exports-down-on-year-in-aug. Global support came from metals demand, including Indonesian sulfur burners, plus seasonal fertilizer buying.
Argus estimated September Vancouver exports near 386,000 tonnes, which would lift January-September 2025 loadings to about 2.73 million tonnes, up 11 percent, or 267,269 tonnes year on year. August had printed 304,675 tonnes, down 5 percent from 320,178 a year earlier, as buyers resisted elevated prices early in the third quarter. September's estimated rebound is the stem working through that resistance.
The January-July FOB average was $238 per tonne, more than triple the $78 average a year earlier. Early October at $305-310 is a further step, in the same neighbourhood as USGS's Tampa $310 per long ton early-October marker. Pacific solid and Florida molten arrived at similar numbers by different paths. Licensed weekly grids behind the Argus assessment are not pasted here. The open-news band is.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through this stem. A $305-310 FOB clears the export-process cost hurdle often cited above $150 per tonne with room that 2024's $78 average did not have. Remelt of the 11.66 million tonne July provincial stock, and Heartland's remelt expansion to 700 tonnes a day, are the mechanical response.
China took 133,907 tonnes of August's 304,675. The United States took 51,249, treated in the reporting as likely Tampa-linked. Brazil's January-August 122,842 tonnes, nearly threefold, is the Atlantic diversion. Metals demand in Indonesia is the bid Argus named even though January-July Indonesia receipts had slipped 23 percent. Seasonal fertilizer buying is the other named bid.
CRU's 1.9 million tonne 2025 deficit is the balance behind a $192.50 year-on-year FOB jump. World production in USGS MCS 2026 was essentially unchanged at 84 million tonnes. Tradeable surplus tightened. Vancouver FOB is the Pacific print of that tightness.
Syncrude's later November facility print just over 9.9 million tonnes, the first sub-10 million since 2019, is the inventory that these FOB ideas were drawing. Forming and rail, not the remaining block, set how fast 386,000 tonne months can repeat.
Tampa at $310 per long ton in USGS MCS 2026 and Vancouver at $305-310 FOB on 2 October are the two North American public prices of early October 2025. The 2026 $705 Tampa and $1,100 Gulf solid prints are a later shock. This item is the deficit-year peak, not the corridor-failure peak.
Figures follow Argus open news. Licensed weekly assessment grids are not redistributed.