Methodology

Sulfur Wire publishes open North American recovered sulfur fundamentals with provenance on each figure. Licensed weekly PRA assessment series are not redistributed.

Source hierarchy

1. verified_public: government or port authority statistics (AER, StatCan, VFPA, USGS) with URL.
2. derived: arithmetic from public inputs (FOB + freight, annual equal-month fill, destination residual).
3. industry_estimate: attributed trade-press or analyst figures in open articles.
4. platform_estimate: Sulfur Wire interpolation between public anchors, labeled.

Observation classes (volumes)

• reported: month or stock print cited as an observation.
• allocated_bridge: residual or bridge so a known YTD/annual total still reconciles.
• allocated_equal_month: calendar fill when only the annual VFPA total is public. Not a monthly port print.
• interpolated: densified inventory months between AER/public anchors.

Vancouver exports

Annual solid sulphur from Vancouver Fraser Port Authority Statistics Overview PDFs is the loadport system of record for 2020–2025. Monthly rows use open monthly/YTD citations when available; otherwise equal-month allocation tagged allocated_equal_month. Destination tables list VFPA trading economies plus Other / unlisted residual so shares sum to the annual total. Provisional 2026 months are withheld until a public monthly or YTD print exists.

Alberta inventory

Canonical monthly line prefers AER ST3 Supply and Disposition of Sulphur. Trade-press inventory prints attributed to AER are tagged industry_estimate. Public tables and charts end at the last observation; months are not held flat as current stock after that cut.

Prices

Hub mids are monthly series densified from open USGS, OSP, and news anchors for API completeness. Dashboard and charts default to public anchors only (skip platform_estimate / interpolated densify) with time gaps where no open print exists. Use prices-anchors.json for the anchor set. Tampa is USD per long ton; seaborne solid hubs are USD per metric ton. SR-GULF-FOB-G is seaborne export spot only; USGS FOB mine/plant domestic averages live in SR-US-DOM-AVG. Basis VG = Vancouver FOB mid − Gulf export spot mid. Open reprints of licensed PRA prints are tagged industry_estimate, not verified_public.

Production

Canada production is stored as metric tonnes. USGS world tables often print million tonnes; those values are converted on ingest and also exposed as quantity_mt_millions. US USGS salient stats remain in thousand tonnes (kt) sulfur content with that unit labeled.

Update cadence

Inventory and trade series refresh when agencies publish. Open intel is filed under data/intel/. Outlook briefs publish weekly, with flash updates when the market moves (commentary, not a licensed PRA price assessment); latest is the newest brief dated on or before today. Automated audit: /data-quality.

Tips

Forward tips to [email protected]. Claims are checked against public sources before site use.