The European sulphuric acid market will continue to face important challenges in the first half of next year because of problems relating to metal concentrate availability and ore grades, which will add further pressure to a market affected by an ongoing shortage of liquid sulphur.
Smelters have faced reduced availability and quality of both copper and zinc concentrates, which coupled with record low treatment charges (TCs), have lowered overall availability of sulphuric acid this year, with the situation unlikely to change in the short to medium term.
Some smelters have resorted to using metal scraps to be able to deal with the lower concentrate availability, but this is resulting in lower sulphuric acid production as recycled scraps contain less sulphate.
The market will continue to be supply driven, affected by production curtailments that will reduce availability in the first half of 2025. The planned maintenance is expected to result in a 350,000t production loss.
A planned outage at Bulgaria's 1.2mn t/yr Aurubis' Pirdop smelter in May-June is set to remove around 200,000-240,000t of sulphuric acid.
The sulphur burner at Weylchem's Bilbao, with a capacity of 350,000 t/yr, will also undergo a month-long planned maintenance in March. In addition, Nuova Solmine's 540,000t/yr sulphur burner will be off line for four weeks from mid-March.
KGHM's Legnica smelter, with a nameplate capacity of 120,000t of acid, is expected to face an output loss of around 40pc of sulphuric acid in 2025 as copper scraps will be used to replace some of the concentrates used by the smelter.
But some of the output losses may be offset by the expansion of capacity at Boliden's Odda smelter, which is scheduled to come on line at the end March, with an estimated 120,000 t/yr of sulphuric acid capacity, bringing total capacity at the smelter to around 240,000 t/yr.
The overall losses because of maintenance will further tighten the domestic market, which will continue to face a severe shortage of liquid sulphur.
Reduced availability of liquid sulphur from refineries in northwest Europe has severely affected sulphur burners that produce sulphuric acid for captive use, with some users switching to smelter acid when possible.
But some consumers, such as those where higher purity is a concern, or those needing the steam generated from sulphur burning to create energy, cannot easily replace liquid sulphur to smelter acid as a feedstock.
And while end-user demand is likely to remain stable next year, supply factors will provide the main driver for the European market in 2025.
