The US Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, published in February and still the annual production anchor on 12 August, estimates US recovered elemental sulfur production at 7.6 million tonnes in 2025, down about 3 percent from 2024. Canada production is estimated at 5.0 million tonnes. World total is 84 million tonnes. The PDF is at https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-sulfur.pdf.
All-forms US sulfur production in the same summary is 8.1 million tonnes in 2025, down from 8.32 million tonnes in 2024. Apparent consumption fell to 9.1 million tonnes. Net import reliance was estimated at 14 percent of apparent consumption. Those are USGS verified_public prints, not trade-press FOB.
Canada's 5.0 million tonne 2025e follows 5.06 million tonnes reported for 2024 in the same world table. BC Insight's 23 March industry estimate put Canadian elemental output nearer 4.7 million tonnes, with oil sands about 3.0 million tonnes. The USGS all-forms line and the CRU elemental line are different books. Both still place Canada among the half-dozen largest producers and the top-tier exporters.
US recovered elemental sulfur is almost entirely a byproduct of sour-gas processing, oil refining, and oil-sands upgrading. Price does not drill a sulfur well. USGS unit-value and Tampa contract paths in the summary describe a market that tightened through 2025, with Tampa markers from $116 per long ton early in the year toward $310 per long ton in early October, before the 2026 Hormuz shock took contracts further.
The 12 August desk note exists because USGS Mineral Industry Surveys remain paused during the ScienceBase migration, with the latest posted monthly MIS through December 2025. MCS 2026 is therefore still the last annual government production print. It is not a weekly. It does not replace AER ST3 inventory or VFPA cargo tables.
Import shares in the same MCS put Canada at 53 percent of US recovered elemental sulfur imports for 2021-24, Mexico 7 percent, Iraq 6 percent, and Kazakhstan 6 percent. Sulfuric acid imports were led by Canada at 54 percent and Mexico at 22 percent. Those shares are why a Hormuz closure that takes Iraqi and other Gulf tonnes off the water leaves Canadian molten and Vancouver solids as the first substitutes.
World 84 million tonnes against 83.9 million tonnes in 2024 is a flat global production line. The 2026 crisis is logistics and trade bans, not a collapse in Claus capacity. Middle East plants that cannot load through Hormuz still produce. Russian and Kazakh bans keep CIS tonnes at home. Canadian and US recovered output continue on oil and gas rates.
Alberta recovered sulfur still leaves mainly through the Vancouver stem. USGS does not publish a Vancouver line. VFPA does: 3,507,428 tonnes of sulphur in 2025. SMM's later H1 review annualized 2026 Canadian exports near 5.22 million tonnes. The MCS Canada 5.0 million tonne production estimate is the output that those export paces must live inside, plus remelt of block.
Tampa Q3 2026 molten at $705 per long ton delivered (Argus open news, https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2851577-tampa-3q-liquid-sulphur-price-hits-record-705-lt) is a 2026 contract print that post-dates MCS 2026. The survey is the 2025 production frame. The Argus item is the mid-2026 price frame. Both stay on the desk.
Figures follow USGS MCS 2026. Licensed weekly assessment grids are not redistributed.