Wednesday 29 July 2026. DAP $800/t, up 1.9%. Brent $88.11, down 9% on the day. Wheat 660 c/bu.
Bedi Port, Gujarat
India has suspended exports of elemental sulphur, with no published order and a market that has simply understood that refiners cannot ship until further notice. The volume at stake is modest and the timing is not: India shipped 356,900 t in January to April, mostly out of Bedi on Reliance account, with China taking 142,900 t and Brazil 110,000 t. Nothing moved in May because refiners were already feeding domestic contract customers first. The reason sits west of Gujarat: India imported 2.25 million t of sulphur in 2025 and sourced roughly 84% of it from the Middle East, and with Hormuz all but shut those arrivals fell 26% year on year to 698,200 t in the first five months. A country short of sulphur stops selling sulphur. DAP printed $800/t on Wednesday, 1.9% above the prior print.
Chambishi, Zambian Copperbelt
The same molecule is now a production constraint 6,000 km away. The United Mineworkers Union of Zambia says small-scale miners are close to shutting down for want of sulphuric acid, the reagent that makes heap and tank leaching work, and its president Yosam Nyirongo wants an immediate ban on acid exports until domestic demand is covered. Chambishi Copper Smelter, Mopani and Konkola make acid as a smelting byproduct; the tailings and dump operators buy it. Official five-month output makes the point in percentages: Konkola down 14%, Sino Xinyani down 28%, Chibuluma down 17%, CNMC Luanshya down 9%, Mopani down 7%, NFC Africa down 3%. COMEX copper sat at $6.3165/lb, flat on the prior session.
Yanbu to Sidi Kerir
Aramco's answer to a closed Hormuz and a hostile Red Sea is a pipeline-and-Cape routing: Yanbu across to Ain Sokhna, north through SUMED, out at Sidi Kerir, then around the Cape of Good Hope for Asian discharge, at a cost put at roughly $5 a barrel more in freight and insurance. That is the workaround functioning while the company's 400,000 bbl/d Jazan refinery stays down after the Houthi strike. Crude has stopped paying the risk premium regardless: Brent printed $88.11 on Wednesday against $96.78 prior, a 9% fall. Dry bulk is quieter still, the Baltic Dry index at 2,664, its lowest since 2 July.
Novorossiysk, by truck
Three Russian Black Sea grain terminals have restricted intake of grain arriving by truck, a logistics decision that reads as a berth-risk decision, and Moscow is weighing whether to arm grain ships against drone attack. Krasnodar's ports report higher wheat volumes even so, and Turkey has lifted its ban on milling wheat exports, adding a seller back to the Mediterranean. Chicago wheat rose for two sessions on the disruption before settling at 660 c/bu on Wednesday, 2.7% below the prior print, which tells you how much of the risk the board is willing to pay for.
Georgia Lake, Ontario
Rock Tech Lithium has signed Transamine for 100,000 t of offtake, with a framework for a development prepayment facility of up to $80 million attached to the Georgia Lake project. Trader prepayment is doing the work banks are not, and the price backdrop supports it: lithium carbonate is quoted around $21,500/t, up 26% so far this year, with spodumene near $2,100/t, up 35%. US-listed critical minerals equities fell on the session even so.