Dear User,
The Middle East is a core hub for global sulfur supply. Major exporting countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman, leveraging their oil and gas associated resources, have established large-scale supply systems. Collectively, they account for over 40% of global sulfur production and nearly half of seaborne sulfur trade. In 2025, China’s total sulfur imports reached approximately 9.61 million mt, of which more than 50% came from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman.
Since the beginning of 2026, regional geopolitical conflicts have disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, creating a huge supply gap for Middle Eastern sulfur and sending spot prices soaring. Middle Eastern sulfur prices have a profound impact on the global sulfur market and downstream industries including sulfuric acid, phosphate fertilizers, and new energy materials.
To more accurately reflect spot market conditions in the Middle East and to promote greater transparency and granularity in global sulfur trade pricing, SMM, based on thorough market research and data accumulation, plans to add the SMM FOB Middle East Sulfur price point starting from August 7, 2026 (Friday).
The relevant price point is defined as follows:
Price Point Name: SMM FOB Middle East Sulfur
Quality Standard: Sulfur Content ≥ 99.5% (on a dry basis); Ash Content ≤ 0.05% ; Moisture Content ≤ 2.0%; Lumps or Granules
Definition: Free on board price of granular sulfur, main Persian Gulf ports, Middle East (excluding Iran)
Unit: USD/mt
Minimum trading volume level: Minimum 20,000 mt
Delivery Deadline: Within 60 days
Release Time: Every Friday working day, 12:00 noon Beijing Time
Payment Terms: L/C/TT at Sight in USD, or Other Terms Normalized
General Rules of SMM Pricing Methodology
Shanghai Metals Market (hereinafter referred to as SMM) is a completely independent third‑party service provider that does not participate in any substantial transactions. Instead, it maintains close communication with the buyers or sellers of transactions as a market observer or organizer and provides relevant services to the market. Through communication with industry insiders, SMM continuously formulates, reviews, and revises its methodology, adopts the most common product specifications, trade terms, and trade conditions in the industry, and equally values normal transactions that meet the specification standards. SMM reserves the right to exclude any price information deemed to be of poor reliability or unrepresentative from its price quotation judgment.
SMM publishes daily metal spot prices (or indices, including those for the Chinese market, markets outside China, and global markets), commonly referred to as SMM Prices. SMM has developed corresponding methodologies for all published SMM Prices (which will be published on SMM's official website https://www.metal.com/ for query), and the methodologies specify the methods and procedures for the generation and publication of SMM Prices, with SMM Prices being generated and published strictly in accordance with the provisions of the methodologies. To align with the actual situation of the spot market, SMM will make necessary revisions to the SMM Price Methodology and announce them on SMM's official website prior to formal implementation. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding SMM Prices or their methodologies, please contact SMM customer service staff (please query the contact information on SMM's official website https://www.metal.com/).
July 29, 2026
Shanghai Metals Market Industry Research Team