Nickel Industries announced startup of the sulfuric acid plant at its Excelsior Nickel Cobalt HPAL project at IMIP, Central Sulawesi, in the final week of June 2026. At capacity the project targets roughly 72,000 tonnes a year contained nickel equivalent as mixed hydroxide precipitate, sulfate, and cathode. BC Insight carried the company statement in its 14 July sulphur market update.
New HPAL acid demand in Indonesia remains a structural pull on sulfur and acid markets even when phosphate affordability weakens. High-pressure acid leach nickel does not follow a Florida or Morocco planting calendar. It follows autoclave uptime. A sulfur or acid shortage that cuts MAP and DAP can still leave HPAL bidding.
SMM's 21 August customs note later put Indonesia at 198,612 tonnes of Canada's June 2026 elemental sulfur exports, the largest destination that month. VFPA's 2025 Vancouver table put Indonesia at 371,000 tonnes, down 13 percent. The June Canadian figure says the HPAL bid was still clearing Pacific tonnes at the same moment Chinese phosphate imports collapsed.
BC Insight's 22 May note had put Indonesia's 2025 dependence on Middle East sulfur at 76 percent, India at 84 percent, and southern Africa at 93 percent. When Hormuz flows impair, those buyers cannot always solve shortages by paying up because cargo availability itself is rationed. A new Sulawesi acid plant adds demand on the scarce side of that rationing.
China's near-total sulfuric acid export halt from early May, described by CRU, SMM, and Exiger, removed a seaborne acid source that metals consumers in Asia had used. China had exported about 4.65 million tonnes of sulfuric acid in 2025. First-half 2026 exports fell to about 0.78 million tonnes, with June collapsing to about 980 tonnes. ENC starting an on-site acid plant is a local answer to that missing Chinese acid.
On-site acid still needs sulfur units, whether as elemental sulfur burned on site or as acid already made. The BC Insight note does not, in the public summary the desk has, specify ENC's sulfur-versus-acid feed split. It specifies startup of the sulfuric acid plant and the nickel-equivalent capacity target.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through the Vancouver stem. Indonesian HPAL is one of the destinations that made Canada a swing supplier after Gulf and CIS doors closed. A 72,000 tonne contained-nickel project is not a 1 million tonne a month Hormuz replacement. It is a rigid bid that will keep showing up in Vancouver destination mix.
Tampa molten at $705 per long ton (Argus, https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2851577-tampa-3q-liquid-sulphur-price-hits-record-705-lt) is the phosphate contract. ENC is not a Tampa buyer. The connection is acid chemistry: sulfur units into sulfuric acid into either phosphate rock or laterite nickel. When both books bid, Alberta forming plants do not have to choose. The FOB bid chooses them.
Figures follow the Nickel Industries announcement as reported by BC Insight. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.