Chinese domestic sulfur screens entered Tuesday 20 October with a rare flat close after a week of sharp marks lower on the Shengyishe rawmex feed.
Shengyishe's morning wire on 2026-10-20 put the national sulfur 基准价 at 6,076.75 yuan per metric tonne, unchanged from the 19 October 16:00 stamp.
The Shandong ≥99% industrial solid line in the 现货参考价 table matched the same 6,076.75 yuan level at 16:00, so the national benchmark and the published provincial reference converged after prior sessions split between plant lists and screen aggregates.
Header statistics on the rawmex page still show a three-month low and high of 6,076.75 and 9,535.67 yuan per tonne respectively, with a three-month average near 8,405.84 yuan framing how far spot has moved from summer levels.
Compared with the 7,685.67 yuan month-start reference in the same statistics block, the 20 October print implies a 20.93 percent decline into the current band.
The pause follows an 8.65 percent single-day drop on 19 October and a cumulative unwind from 7,179 yuan on 13 October in Shengyishe's own trend commentary.
Shandong refinery postings from 19 October still show a wide plant band, with Shenchi at 4,703 yuan per tonne, Dongming liquid at 5,000 yuan and solid at 6,500 yuan, and Lihuayi at 5,700 yuan on the rawmex feed.
For Alberta exporters the Pacific bid remains anchored to open Vancouver FOB context. ChemPortal's 15 October sulphur dashboard listed granular Vancouver FOB at 830 to 840 dollars per tonne, down 50 dollars from the 8 October band.
ChemPortal's freight row on the same page carried Vancouver loading to China on 50 to 60 thousand tonne parcels at 38 to 43 dollars per tonne.
Alberta Energy Regulator ST3 through August 2026 shows closing sulfur inventory at 11,042,851.4 tonnes with August production at 328,937.3 tonnes, the verified_public stockpile behind rail and terminal scheduling.
Coastal elemental sulfur inventories near 1.1198 million tonnes on Shengyishe's 19 October port wire give import buyers cover while domestic screens stabilize at the low.
Desk read: treat the flat 基准 as stabilization after the mid-October break, not a reversal; net Vancouver stem with 830 to 840 dollar FOB plus 38 to 43 dollar freight against 6,076.75 yuan replacement cost.