Qatar's Muntajat raises September sulphur price

Qatar's state-owned sulphur producer and marketer Muntajat/Qatar Energy has raised the Qatar Sulphur Price (QSP) for September to $125/t fob Ras Laffan/Mesaieed.

This is up by $19/t on its August QSP set at $106/t fob after spot prices rose. The latest spot tenders from Qatar and Kuwait have attracted several bids at $120s/t fob from trading firms.

This follows a substantial rise of $25/t from July to August, when the latest round of price increases in the spot market started to filter through, as phosphate fertilizer prices firmed and some supply curbs limited output from the usual producers.

The latest adjustment for September implies delivered pricing to China of $151-157/t cfr at current freight rates, which were last assessed on 22 August at $26-28/t to south China and at $30-32/t to Chinese river ports for a shipment of 30,000-35,000t.

But with China cfr assessments at $134-139/t cfr on 22 August, delivered prices were below the implied range in the previous round of business, as buyers opted to wait and see what was the outlook for fertilizer exports prior to booking more raw material imports.

By Maria Mosquera