Third-quarter Tampa delivered molten sulfur contracts settled at a record $705 per long ton, up $50 per long ton from $655 per long ton in the second quarter of 2026, after the second quarter had already surpassed the prior 2008 peak. Argus open news on 13 July is at https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2851577-tampa-3q-liquid-sulphur-price-hits-record-705-lt.
The settlement still sits well below US Gulf spot solid exports, which the same open item put at $1,100-1,150 per tonne FOB. Phosphate affordability is already in the conversation. Mosaic and Nutrien domestic contract talks remain the US Gulf liquid benchmark for phosphate feedstock costs. Licensed weekly assessment grids behind those talks are not redistributed here.
Tampa is the US phosphate molten contract. Vancouver is the Pacific export stem for Alberta forming plants. A move between those two indexes is a North American basis choice after the same Hormuz shock rerated both hubs. Itafos later said Conda moved its Kennecott acid pricing off Vancouver onto Tampa in May because Tampa sat below Vancouver through the quarter.
USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 had already shown Tampa climbing through 2025, from about $116 per long ton at the year open toward $310 per long ton in early October. The 2026 path in the desk's public-anchor file is about $496 per long ton in the first quarter, $655 in the second, and $705 in the third. Each step is an open-news or USGS print, not a scraped weekly grid.
Q2 cargoes from the US Gulf reached unusual destinations including North Africa for fertilizer and East Africa for the copper belt as Middle East flows dwindled. Some US Gulf producers lack solid-export infrastructure and remain dependent on domestic molten consumers, raising demand-destruction risk if phosphate runs stay curtailed. The $705 molten contract is the price those captive tonnes receive. The $1,100 solid is the price the export-capable plants can bid for.
CRU's 14 July update put Middle East monthly sulfur exports down more than 1.0 million tonnes since March and production loss near 2.3 million tonnes. OCP cut Moroccan phosphate capacity by up to 50 percent in Q2. Mosaic curtailed at three US and Brazil locations. A record Tampa print with those cuts already on the tape is a rationing price, not a boom.
For Alberta inventory and the Vancouver stem, Tampa is now the molten contract that prices some Western acid after Itafos. A record Tampa print with Gulf solids still higher is a two-hub North American market. Formed Alberta tonnes still leave through Vancouver. Molten Canadian tonnes still rail south. Both watch $705 as the Florida floor under the 2026 shock.
TFI's 18 August interview later named Mosaic's Q3 settlement at this same $705 per long ton and asked Washington to treat sulfur as a bottleneck alongside nitrogen and potash. The 13 July Argus item is the price discovery. The August TFI item is the political translation.
Canada remains the dominant US import source, 53 percent of elemental sulfur imports in USGS 2021-24. A $705 Tampa contract raises the value of those Canadian molten tonnes without, on 13 July, any new tariff listing of HS 2503. The later August tariff watch is a separate file.
Restated Tampa and Gulf figures keep the original Argus URL above. This item does not paste a licensed weekly grid.