Sulfuric acid is moving from an industrial afterthought to a strategic commodity, and the latest price data show just how fast that shift is happening. Three separate price series all point higher, with the market under visible strain after sulfur prices rose and a large share of globally traded sulfur had already passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the disruption.
That matters because sulfuric acid is one of the most important industrial reagents in the world, used across a wide range of manufacturing chains. On May 5, the price reported by the Milan Chamber of Commerce moved well above the peak recorded during the 2022 price cycle, while customs prices for intra-EU and China FOB remained below that earlier high. The customs figures also tracked close to producer or export prices, suggesting they reflect the underlying supply side more than the final market.
The Milan Chamber of Commerce series tells a different story. Those prices are more representative of distribution prices in the final market, and they have been rising more aggressively than the customs data. The gap between the series is important because it shows where the pressure is showing up first: not only in production, but farther down the chain, where distributors and buyers are feeling it most.
The economics of the acid explain why the move has been so sharp. There are two main industrial processes used to produce sulphuric acid, but the sulfur burner route sets the market price because smelter output is usually not enough to meet demand. In that route, production costs are driven largely by the price of sulfur itself. The smelter route, by contrast, can be close to zero in cost because sulfur dioxide is effectively a waste by-product of metal production. That asymmetry leaves the market exposed whenever sulfur gets expensive.
The relationship is direct. Roughly 330 kg of sulfur are needed to make one ton of sulfuric acid, so a jump in sulfur prices quickly feeds into the acid price. The report describes the current phase as a structural one, not just a short-term response to geopolitics, and says the market has entered a new industrial cycle. That reflects a deeper change in how the commodity is being valued as supply chains tighten.
There is one partial substitute: hydrochloric acid can be used in some industrial applications. But it is not a like-for-like replacement. Hydrochloric acid is normally sold at 31–33% concentration, while sulphuric acid is typically sold at 93–98%. One ton of commercial sulphuric acid contains about twice the usable acidity of one ton of commercial hydrochloric acid, and the current intra-EU customs price of hydrochloric acid is about 90 €/t. That keeps it in the background as a fallback, not a full alternative.
The bigger point is that sulfuric acid is no longer pricing like a quiet by-product. With sulfur moving through a narrower and more sensitive trading system, and with the sulfur burner route still setting the benchmark, the market is behaving more like a strategic input than a commodity that can absorb shocks easily. The next move will likely come from whether sulfur stays tight enough to keep pushing the acid above the levels seen in 2022.
