Saudi Aramco December sulphur price down $3/tonne

LONDON (ICIS)–Saudi Aramco Trading has set its monthly sulphur price for shipments in December at $125/tonne FOB (free on board) Jubail, down by $3/tonne from November, market sources confirmed Tuesday.

“This price is in line with what we expected and it should settle the market now,” said a sulphur trader.

The December announcement by Saudi Aramco follows that of Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (Tasweeq) which announced its Qatar Sulphur Price (QSP) for November at $119/tonne FOB Ras Laffen, a decrease of $23/tonne from October.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) set its official selling price (OSP) for November sulphur shipments to the Indian market at $135/tonne FOB Ruwais.

In relation to the $15/tonne sulphur price reduction from October to November, an ADNOC source said: “We understand that the market is under pressure so we lowered our price from $150/tonne and there has been a lack of demand from China.

“The Indian tender for PPL (Paradeep Phosphates Limited) at $148/tonne is a netback of $133-134/tonne – this also gave us [price] direction.”