Purified Phosphoric Acid Costs Surge as Sulphur Crunch Hits Morocco's Jorf Lasfar

Purified phosphoric acid (PPA) prices have climbed sharply across 2026 as the cost of sulphuric acid, the single largest input in its production, has more than doubled in several regions. The pressure traces back to the Iran war that began at the end of February 2026 and the resulting restriction of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which a large share of the world's seaborne sulphur trade normally passes.

PPA is produced by treating phosphate rock with sulphuric acid to obtain wet-process phosphoric acid, which is then purified through extraction, decantation and concentration steps to remove impurities. The result is a high-grade acid used in food and beverage products as an acidity regulator, in pharmaceuticals, in detergents and water treatment, in metal surface treatment, and increasingly in lithium iron phosphate battery materials. Because sulphuric acid now represents close to 59 percent of PPA production cost at current price levels, any spike in sulphur feedstock passes through almost directly to the finished acid.

Morocco sits at the center of this story. The Jorf Lasfar complex, opened in 1986 and the world's largest integrated phosphate fertilizer site, processes phosphate piped from the Khouribga mine and produces both merchant-grade and purified phosphoric acid through OCP Group and its EMAPHOS joint venture with Budenheim and Prayon. North Africa holds close to 85 percent of global phosphate reserves but has little domestic sulphur recovery, so the region is a major importer of sulphur and sulphuric acid. Moroccan sulphur imports reached roughly 8.2 million tonnes in a recent year, leaving the country's phosphate chemistry directly exposed to any disruption in seaborne sulphur flows.

The timeline of the squeeze is clear. When the conflict erupted at the end of February 2026, sulphur and sulphuric acid markets tightened almost immediately as cargo movements through the Gulf slowed. Through the first quarter, sulphur prices in Asia rose by roughly 22 percent between January and March, with the Middle East accounting for close to 47 percent of global seaborne sulphur trade and facing export disruption. In March 2026, phosphoric acid was priced at about 1,095 USD per tonne in Morocco, around 1,176 USD in South Korea and roughly 1,535 USD in Germany, all on an upward path. By late May 2026, market analysts reported sulphur prices up more than 50 percent since the start of the war and sulphuric acid prices more than doubled in some regions, with spot acid above 380 USD per tonne in Indonesia and above 440 USD per tonne in Chile as converters scrambled for alternative supplies.

The exposure runs wider than fertilizers. Analysis indicates that more than half of global lithium, cobalt, rare earth and purified phosphoric acid output planned for 2026 is exposed to shocks in the sulphur and sulphuric acid markets. China's informal restriction on sulphuric acid exports has added to the strain on refiners outside the country. Physical availability, not only price, has become the central risk, since a prolonged closure of normal Hormuz routes limits the volume of sulphur that can physically reach North African and Asian processing hubs.

The most directly affected sector is phosphate fertilizer production, where phosphoric acid is the key intermediate for DAP and MAP. Food and beverage manufacturers, pharmaceutical producers, detergent and water treatment companies, and battery material makers all draw on purified grades and face higher input costs as the surge works through contracts. With the disruption to Hormuz traffic still well below pre-war levels and no full normalization of sulphur flows, the upward pressure on PPA is expected to persist into the coming months unless feedstock supply routes recover.