Itafos said Conda's long-term sulfuric acid supply from Rio Tinto Kennecott, about 60 percent of Conda sulfur needs, was amended in May. Pricing moved off the Vancouver sulfur index onto the Tampa index, with collars against extreme moves. The second-quarter remarks were reported 9 August via Transcript Daily at https://transcriptdaily.com/2026/08/09/itafos-q2-earnings-call-highlights.html.
CEO David Delaney said Tampa sat below Vancouver through the quarter, so the change helped Q2 immediately. He put Vancouver spot near $1,100 per tonne through June with a small early-Q3 dip, and said about 45 percent of global sulfur trade had moved through Hormuz before the Iran conflict. Those are named company remarks, not desk inventions.
Conda is a US phosphate plant in Idaho buying Western acid. The index switch is a North American basis choice after both Vancouver and Tampa rerated on the same Hormuz shock. It is not a claim that Florida molten is cheaper to rail to Idaho than Kennecott acid is to buy. It is a claim that the contract's reference index, with collars, moved.
Argus open news on 13 July put the Tampa Q3 delivered molten contract at $705 per long ton, up from $655 in Q2 (https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2851577-tampa-3q-liquid-sulphur-price-hits-record-705-lt). Delaney's Vancouver spot near $1,100 per tonne through June sits in the same neighbourhood as that cycle's US Gulf solid-export indications of $1,100-1,150 per tonne FOB. Tampa molten and Pacific solid are different products. The Conda amendment chose the molten index.
China sulfuric acid exports were described as halted. Russia sulfur exports remain suspended through year-end. Kazakhstan transport was also reported suspended. Those three closures are why a Western US phosphate plant is rewriting acid contracts in 2026 instead of rolling last year's index.
TFI later, on 18 August, said Mosaic settled Q3 molten at the same $705 per long ton and that four Mosaic units had been cut earlier in the summer. Itafos is a smaller phosphate name making the same sulfur-cost decision from the other side of the Rockies. The Tampa contract is becoming the inland US reference even for plants that never loaded at Tampa Bay.
Alberta forming plants still price most Pacific solids on a Vancouver FOB idea. A US acid contract leaving that index does not empty the Vancouver stem. It does reduce one Western bid for Vancouver-linked sulfur units and adds a bid for Tampa-linked units. Basis, not volume, is the first-order change.
USGS MCS 2026 still has Canada at 53 percent of US elemental sulfur imports and 54 percent of sulfuric acid imports. Conda's Kennecott acid is a US mine-smelter byproduct, not a Canadian import. The index that prices it, however, is now the Florida phosphate contract that Canadian molten also watches.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through the Vancouver stem. World supply shocks show up there as stem tightness and as index shopping by inland buyers. Delaney's 45 percent Hormuz share is consistent with TFI's nearly 50 percent and CRU's more than 45 percent of 2025 seaborne trade. The Conda amendment is one plant's response to that share going missing.
Quotes follow Delaney as reported on 9 August. Collars against extreme moves are the company's stated term. Licensed weekly grids are not restated.