The sulphur price rose 4.22% in end-of-week trading on 11 September to ¥8,639.25 ($1,801) per tonne, up 226.71% year-on-year.
Trading Economics reports that the commodity has fallen 9.08% over the past month, although it remains significantly higher year-to-date and year-on-year.
The price increase is reflective of a sulphur shortage worldwide. Causes of this shortage include the war in Iran, China’s export restrictions, as well as a drop in Russian production.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports around half of the world’s seaborne sulphur trade to move through the Strait of Hormuz.
Since conflicts arose in February 2026, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been essentially halted, putting pressure on trade activities for many energy products.
Meanwhile, tougher Chinese export restrictions on sulphuric acid, imposed on 1 May 2026, have also added to geopolitical concerns.
Prior to strengthened export restrictions, China was considered the world’s largest sulfuric acid exporter with around 4.6 million tonnes shipped in 2025, S&P Global’s Global Trade Atlas reports.
As for Russia’s contribution, production deteriorated by 7% from 2022 to 2024, followed by another 21.7% drop in 2025, according to commodity data group SunSirs.
In the first half of 2026, Russian output fell by 23% year-on-year, producing around 2 million tonnes.
Currently, Australia has no active mine production of native elemental sulphur, though sulphuric acid is often produced domestically from industrial plants, the Government of South Australia reports.
In 2013, global sulphur production reached 69 million tonnes across all forms of the commodity, with around 50% produced as a by-product of natural gas and petroleum production. Pyrite and native sulphur operations represented around 30% of total production at this time.
At this same time, Australia produced around 900,000 tonnes of sulphur as a by-product from metallurgy and petroleum.
Large deposits of sulphide materials are often found at Mount Isa and Mount Morgan in Queensland, Broken Hill and Captains Flat in New South Wales, Mount Lyell and Read-Rosebery in Tasmania, Nairne in South Australia, and Norseman in Western Australia.
In the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, Western Mines Group (ASX:WMG) is focused on uncovering an extensive magmatic nickel sulphide mineral system at the Mulga Tank Project.
Mulga Tank hosts an initial resource estimate of more than 5.3 million tonnes of contained nickel, which Western Mines says makes the project the “largest nickel sulphide deposit in Australia and likely top 10 in the world”.
Late last month, Western Mines returned broad zones of nickel sulphide mineralisation from the first four holes drilled within a phase-five program.
Managing Director Caedmon Marriott described holes MTRC080 and MTRC082 as having shown “some robust sulphide mineralisation”, with MTRC080 returning 235m @ 0.28% nickel (Ni), 134 parts per million (ppm) cobalt (Co), and 228ppm copper (Cu) from 83m, while MTRC082 returned 213m @ 0.28% Ni, 128ppm Co, and 96ppm Cu from 87m.
Western Mines Group is an Australian explorer advancing a portfolio of gold and nickel‑copper projects across WA.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
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