Sulphuric Acid

CBIL brokers sulphuric acid across the three grades the market actually buys: 98% technical acid for phosphate fertilizer, metal leaching, water treatment and general chemical use; oleum for sulphonation, nitration and caprolactam; and low-metal battery grade for lead-acid electrolyte. Supply comes from sulphur-burning plants in India and East Asia and from smelter acid producers, each certified by SGS or Intertek at load for strength, iron, arsenic, lead, chloride, sulphur dioxide and colour, and for the trace-metal panel on battery grade. Acid is corrosive, heavy and cheap, so the trade is a logistics trade: bulk stainless or coated chemical-tanker parcels of 5,000–30,000 MT into a buyer's own tank, ISO tanks of about 24 MT for buyers without a terminal, and IBCs, drums and jerrycans for distributors and reconditioners, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Sulphuric acid is a scheduled drug precursor (UN 1988 Convention, Table II), so pre-export notification, end-user declarations and any licence are arranged per destination. We sit next to the sulphur book: the acid plants and phosphate producers who buy our sulphur are the same companies who sell and buy acid.