A planned conversion of the plant into a biorefinery remains under consideration for the longer term. Eni’s Livorno refinery is also due to resume operations in July following maintenance that began in mid-May. Lukoil’s Priolo refinery resumed production in May following a long shutdown and Eni’s Milazzo refinery is ramping up operations following a May turnaround, boosting Italian sulphur production. In Italy and Spain, the supply situation has forced some usual local product offtakers to turn to expensive imported product this year, a situation that is now starting to ease. But some recovery has been evident in sulphur supply in the past few weeks as refining rates increase and maintenance work - some of which has been extended - comes to an end. We continue to monitor closely the balance of projects and capacity through our Argus Sulphur price reporting service. European and Mediterranean sulphur supply is unlikely to return to the same levels as prior to the pandemic, as older refineries in the region are converted to biorefineries or are closed at an accelerating pace in line with longer-term environmental goals. Refining rates remain lower than usual, and this will continue to be the case while Covid-19 travel restrictions are still in place and new variants keep emerging that delay the removal of those curbs on movement. Source: Argus Mediterranean refining improving This was aided by the low levels of sulphur production and robust demand from local buyers as well as buyers seeing unprecedented tightness in the European molten sulphur chain, pulling in larger quantities of Mediterranean granular supply to usual molten consumers in southern Europe as well as further north. This has meant that sulphur production has continued to be curbed from usual levels, while countries have sought to secure the food production chain amid the global pandemic, supporting sulphur demand from the phosphate fertilizer sector.įollowing the rapid firming in sulphur pricing over the first quarter, some softness appeared in Middle East fob pricing in the second quarter, as a limited recovery in supply coupled with a pull-back in buying from China as a result of concerns over the speed of commodity price increases and climbing freight costs.īut in the Mediterranean region, fob prices remained firm in comparison until the end of May-early June. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in refining rates continuing to languish at low levels in the first half of 2021, as travel restrictions limit demand for transport fuels on a global scale. The price of sulphur firmed rapidly in the first half of this year, owing to a combination of tight supply and recovering demand.īy the latter half of the second quarter it was evident that some price correction - largely driven by rising freight costs and an increase in supply - was due in the global market, but pricing in the Mediterranean region proved more resilient, until recently. Author Maria Mosquera, Editor, Argus Sulphur
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