Sulphur
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[edit] Overview
Sulphur is a non-metallic chemical element identified by the letter S. For a list of sulphur’s chemical properties, please click here. Sulphur is a valuable commodity and an integral component of the world economy. Sulphur is used to manufacture numerous products including fertilizers, nylon, paper products, and other consumer and commercial goods. For a list of sulphur uses click here. Sulphur also is a vital nutrient for crops, animals and people.
Sulphur occurs naturally in the environment and is the thirteenth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. It can be mined in its elemental form, although this method of production, once dominant in the sulphur industry, has significantly declined in importance in recent years. Most elemental sulphur is obtained as a co-product recovered from oil and gas production.[1]
[edit] Applications
Sulphur is an important industrial raw material which is used:[2]
- in the manufacture of sulphuric acid,
- in the manufacture of sulphur dioxide and sodium sulphite which are used for bleaching straw and wood fibers, and for removing lignin from wood pulp for the paper industry, and
- in the manufacture of organic chemicals which contain sulphur.
[edit] Supply/Demand
Global Sulphur Supply/Demand Balance Between 2007 and 2011, the world production of elemental sulphur is projected to reach 64.0 Mt S in 2011. This increase represents an annual growth rate of 6.4%, the highest growth rate that has been registered since the mid- 1980s. On a regional basis, West Asia will account for more than one-third of the growth in elemental sulphur production. Other major contributing regions are Asia and North America.Global consumption of elemental sulphur is projected to grow at an annual rate of 4.6% between 2007 and 2011, reaching 59.2 Mt S in 2011. This increase will come from higher consumption of sulphuric acid in the manufacture of phosphoric acid-based fertilizers and its growing use in ore leaching. In the near future, the global supply/demand balance of elemental sulphur would be tight in 2007 and 2008, softening in 2009 and expanding rapidly in 2011, above 4.8 Mt S.[3]
[edit] Pricing Structure
The sulphur market has recently enjoyed one of its longest and strongest rallies in many years. This results principally from the fact that the market has been in effective supply deficit. This situation has arisen both because of some producers’ logistical problems in getting sulphur to market and also because of booming Chinese import demand. Prices are still low by the standards of the 1980s, though. At that time, there were persistent and sometimes large annual supply deficits necessitating the continual re-melting of stocks that had accumulated in Alberta during the 1970s. This was not the only reason for the higher level of prices, though. In the 1980s, the voluntary producers – the miners of sulphur and pyrites – were a far bigger force in the market. Mining was their living, and they did everything in their power to ensure that it was a profitable activity. However, the collapse of demand in the late 1980s and early 1990s coupled with continued increases in involuntary production saw prices collapse, and many sulphur and pyrites mines were closed. The supply of sulphur and merchant sulphuric acid was increasingly controlled by oil, gas and base metals companies for whom the sale of the products was sometimes little more than a waste disposal exercise. Gradually, these companies have come to take a more serious interest in the by-products, though, and a degree of orderliness has returned to the market. [4]
[edit] Major Producers
The global sulphur industry remains divided into two sectors – discretionary and nondiscretionary. In the discretionary sector, the mining of sulphur or pyrites is the sole objective; this voluntary production of native sulphur or pyrites is based on the orderly mining of discrete deposits with the objective of obtaining as nearly a complete recovery of the resource as economic conditions permit.
The nondiscretionary sector recovers sulphur or sulphuric acid as an incidental by-product of the principal commodity output. Environmental considerations demand that the sulphur/acid output is maintained subject to demand for the primary product irrespective of sulphur demand or economics of production. Although metal production accounts for about 23% of total sulphur production, it is small compared to other sources and the petrochemicals industry is a major producer of nondiscretionary sulphur.[5]
[edit] World Sulphur Situation
In 2006, world elemental sulphur consumption was estimated at 47.7 Mt S, while production reached 47.9 Mt. The demand of elemental sulphur for fertilizers showed a slight increase due to higher production of phosphate-based fertilizers. The demand in the industrial sector remained firm. In 2006, the global trade of elemental sulphur increased 2% to 28 Mt S. Major exporters were Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia and a few other countries in West Asia, Japan and Kazakhstan. Major importers were China, Morocco, the United States, India, Brazil and Tunisia.[6]
[edit] Price forecast
[edit] External References
- ↑ http://www.sulphurinstitute.org/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=105&z=30
- ↑ http://www.ucc.ie/academic/chem/dolchem/html/elem/elem016.html
- ↑ http://www.fertilizer.org/ifa/publicat/PDF/2007_istanbul_ifa_summary.pdf
- ↑ http://www.afa.com.eg/upload/S3_003%20Sulphur%20Supply~Demand%20Balance_The%20Outlook%20to%202013.pdf afa 11th Int’l Annual fertilizer Conference &Exhibition
- ↑ http://www.saintbarbara.com/Sulphurpaper2007.pdf
- ↑ http://www.fertilizer.org/ifa/publicat/PDF/2007_istanbul_ifa_summary.pdf
