China’s first-half 2010 sulphur imports fall 25%

30 July 2010 16:06  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--China’s sulphur imports in the first half of 2010 dropped by 25% from the same period last year, suggesting weak fundamentals in the market, customs data showed on Friday.

Despite a month-on-month increase in China’s sulphur imports in June, total shipments received between January and June this year, at 4.95m tonnes, were still below the level a year ago at 6.58m tonnes, due to weak demand and high inventory levels in China.

June sulphur imports in China totalled 801,374 tonnes, up by 32% from May when imports fell to their lowest level, at 606,740 tonnes, since January 2009.

Saudi Arabia was the largest sulphur supplier in June, with 397,443 tonnes, which was 286,670 tonnes above May’s level.

Shipments from Canada showed a massive monthly drop of 145,159 tonnes, to 34,000 tonnes in June. The decrease was due to a combination of declining gas-recovered sulphur supplies in western Canada and higher-than-expected demand from the US market that restricted export volumes from Canada.

Japan, Qatar and South Korea exported 80,906 tonnes, 54,141 tonnes and 40,547 tonnes of sulphur to China in June respectively.

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By: Freda Gordon
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