Market and product

Mosaic scales back phosphate production in Brazil amid tight sulfur supply

Mosaic said it will temporarily reduce phosphate production at several of its Brazilian plants as the global sulfur market tightens, shipping risk through the Strait of Hormuz persists, and input costs climb. In a statement issued July 8, the company said it had revised its operating plan for the second half of 2026 to reflect the reduced sulfur supply and higher prices.

The Uberaba complex in Minas Gerais - which produces roughly 1 million tonnes a year of MAP fertilizer along with several other product lines - is expected to begin a gradual wind-down starting in September because of ongoing sulfur supply constraints. The Fospar plant in Paranaguá will keep running as normal until its sulfuric acid inventories are expected to run out around the end of September. The Cajati site in São Paulo state will continue operating, supported by imported sulfur, to keep supplying the animal nutrition segment. Mosaic also extended previously announced shutdowns at its Tapira and Catalão units and said it would scale back or pause several fertilizer-blending facilities, with possible effects on staffing depending on the outcome of talks with unions.

The company said the length of these cutbacks will depend on how sulfur prices, global supply chains, international shipping routes and the broader geopolitical situation evolve, describing the measures as a temporary response rather than a shift in long-term strategy. Mosaic had already halved output at its Louisiana and Florida plants in the US starting in May to limit additional sulfur purchases at elevated prices. According to the company, producing 10 tonnes of DAP or MAP fertilizer requires around 4 tonnes of sulfur. Platts, part of S&P Global, assessed granular sulfur delivered to Brazil at $1,200 a tonne on July 8, up sharply from around $525 a tonne before the conflict that disrupted supply began in late February.

India waives transport permits for clean-fuel vehicles for seven years

India's government has exempted commercial vehicles running on ethanol, methanol, hydrogen and battery power from transport permit requirements for seven years, under a notification issued July 6 pursuant to Section 66 of the Motor Vehicles Act. The exemption, issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, covers both goods and passenger vehicles using the four clean-fuel technologies, provided they're fitted with AIS-140-compliant tracking devices.

The move comes as India's ethanol industry grapples with a capacity glut: domestic production runs at about 20 billion liters a year, while oil marketing companies purchase only 11-12 billion liters annually for the country's E20 blending program, leaving a surplus of roughly 8-9 billion liters a year. The permit waiver is expected to open up a new demand channel for that surplus by encouraging fleet operators to adopt ethanol-powered vehicles, removing a regulatory barrier that has long limited uptake of alternative fuels in the transport sector.

India's sugar industry is also expanding into other bio-based products beyond fuel ethanol, including polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastics and sustainable aviation fuel, as the ethanol surplus pushes the sector toward diversification. Balrampur Chini Mills' 80,000-tonne-a-year PLA plant, expected to come online in 2027, is described as India's first large-scale facility converting sugar into industrially compostable bioplastic aimed at replacing single-use plastics.

At the Sugar, Ethanol and Bioenergy conference held June 12-13, industry speakers pointed to further ways to extract value from ethanol production: CO2 generated during fermentation could be treated as a commercial resource rather than waste, with potential uses in fertilizer manufacturing and other industrial applications, while growing sweet sorghum as a ratoon crop between sugarcane harvests could add roughly 500 million liters of ethanol capacity a year without requiring extra land or water, while also boosting farmer incomes.

The permit exemption is part of a broader push by India to accelerate adoption of alternative fuels in commercial transport, aimed at cutting emissions, reducing reliance on conventional fossil fuels and diversifying the sector's energy mix, as the country targets a $300 billion bioeconomy within the next decade.

Sources:
• Mosaic cuts Brazil phosphate output amid tight sulfur supply, rising costs — Hiron Pascon and Marina Silveira Lima, S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts), July 8, 2026
• India grants 7-year permit waiver for ethanol and renewable fuel vehicles — Samyak Pandey, S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts)

https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/agriculture/070826-mosaic-cuts-brazil-phosphate-output-amid-tight-sulfur-supply-rising-costs
https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/agriculture/070826-india-grants-7-year-permit-waiver-for-ethanol-and-renewable-fuel-vehicles