Sulfur Prices Hit Historic Highs Amid Global Shortage

Chinese futures even exceeded $1,300 per ton, marking a 3.7 times increase compared to the same period last year.

In the first half of 2026 sulfur became the most expensive commodity worldwide, with prices surging 2.4 times from the start of the year. This sharp rise is already reducing production volumes of phosphate fertilizers that rely heavily on sulfur as a key raw material.

Future market stability will depend on whether additional supplies can arrive from the Middle East and other producers including Russia.

Sulphur, once the unloved byproduct of oil, gaseous and metal refining, has staged 2026’s most ironic commodity coup. By late July, prices hit $800–$1,000/t. Chinese prices surged above $1,300/t — roughly 3.7 times higher than a year earlier and up 2.4 times since January. It became the world’s sharpest-rising commodity in the first half of the year. Global output stands at roughly 84 million tons. China produces about 19 million, the US 9 million, and Russia 8 million. Yet the Middle East accounts to nearly half of global seaborne sulphur trade. Saudi Arabia is the leading exporter. Seven of the ten largest importers rely on Middle Eastern cargoes to greater than 40% of supply; five rely on the region to greater than 50%. That artery is now constricted. Reduced Chinese gaseous processing, months of disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, a temporary Russian ban on Kazakh transit involving greater than 4 million tons a year, China’s suspension of sulphuric-acid exports, and reduced availability from other origins have combined into a severe supply squeeze. Russian production has also deteriorated sharply. Output fell by 7% from 2022 to 2024, declined another 21.7% in 2025, and dropped 23% year-on-year in the first half of 2026 to around 2 million tons. June alone saw a 44% year-on-year decline. Domestic export restrictions, extended through the end of 2026, have tightened the market further. The cascade is already visible. Phosphate production in Morocco has reportedly fallen by 40–50%. Mosaic has reduced phosphate production in Brazil and the US as soaring sulphur costs squeezed margins. At sulphur prices above $800/t, some high-pressure nickel-leaching operations might also have become uneconomic, while higher sulphur costs put further pressure on copper, uranium, semiconductor and battery supply chains. The Hormuz bottleneck reportedly removed roughly 15 million tons from the global fertilizer market between February and might — around one-third of healthy quarterly sales. No warehouse can store that absence; the fields simply receive less. Africa, Southeast Asia, India and Brazil sit first in the vulnerability queue. Experts now track three variables: geopolitics, supply recovery and demand destruction. A partial Hormuz reopening will not instantly refill the tanks; logistics will take time to normalize, and sulphur has no quick substitute. Companies with captive production, resilient logistics and high internal conversion rates will be better positioned. A world that lands robots on Mars remains held hostage by residual sulphur recovered from a gaseous stream in Astrakhan or a Gulf refinery. History’s sense of humor is intact. The element that once merely stank now dictates fertilizer economics, metal margins and, possibly, next year’s grain prices. The only thing rising faster than the quotations is the irony.