Ecopetrol's Cartagena Refinery said it entered the solid sulfur market with a new pelletising plant rated at 1,000 tonnes a day, dispatching a first 260 tonne domestic shipment. The company targets Colombian fertilizer, chemical, and mining demand plus exports to Brazil, Peru, and Africa. BC Insight carried the company statement in its 14 July sulphur market update.
One thousand tonnes a day is about 365,000 tonnes a year if the plant runs every day at nameplate. That is a small Atlantic origin next to a Middle East hole CRU put at more than 1 million tonnes a month. It is a concrete origin. Formed sulfur is what seaborne buyers can lift. Molten at a refinery gate is not.
The project adds a small but concrete new Atlantic Basin solid-sulfur origin amid Middle East logistics stress. Brazil, Peru, and Africa are the same unusual destination set Argus described for US Gulf Q2 cargoes. Cartagena is closer to Santos and West Africa than Vancouver is. Freight, not FOB, will decide whether those buyers lift Colombian pellets or Gulf solids.
A first 260 tonne domestic shipment is a commissioning cargo, not a market. Colombian fertilizer, chemical, and mining demand is the home book. Export listings of Brazil, Peru, and Africa are the company's stated ambition. The desk will not treat nameplate as exported tonnes until fixtures print.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through the Vancouver stem. Cartagena does not compete with Vancouver into China or Indonesia on a freight basis. It can compete with US Gulf solids into Brazil and West Africa. That is a Gulf-versus-Caribbean basis, not a Vancouver story, except insofar as it takes Atlantic bids off the global residual.
US Gulf spot solids at $1,100-1,150 per tonne FOB on 9 July (Argus, https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2851577-tampa-3q-liquid-sulphur-price-hits-record-705-lt) are the price neighbourhood a new pelletiser would be selling into if it exported in that window. A 1,000 tonne a day plant cannot reset that band. It can fill a few fixtures.
Colombia's recovered sulfur is a refinery byproduct, like US Gulf sulfur. Throughput at Cartagena, not sulfur price, sets how many tonnes the pelletiser can feed. The 1,000 tonne a day rating is forming capacity. Claus recovery at the refinery is the true ceiling.
Phosphate and copper-belt demand in Brazil, Peru, and Africa is the bid Ecopetrol named. OCP's Q2 cuts and Mosaic's Brazil curtailment say that bid is real and constrained. A new pelletiser is one more Atlantic answer, smaller than a single large Vancouver stem month.
Figures follow Ecopetrol as reported by BC Insight. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.