Today, Russia announced the ban of sulphuric acid exports. Russia also banned the export of elemental sulphur late last year to protect its agricultural industry, as its domestic production has been declining. Like the sulphur export ban, the sulphuric acid ban is said to be in place until the end of the year. Russia is the 12th largest exporter of sulphuric acid and almost all of it goes to Kazakhstan… the world’s tenth largest copper producer. While we suspect that the ban on the ‘King of Chemicals’ (sulphuric acid) won’t make a big impact on the production of the ‘King of Metals’ (copper)… we are unlikely to see the record-high prices for sulphur and sulphuric acid prices come down any time soon. In the DRC, we are already seeing high-strength sulphuric acid prices traded at over $1,000 per tonne… up well over 100% in the past 3 months alone. While it’s not surprising to see countries prioritise food security and domestic supply chains over global free trade… any balkanizing of supply chains is nothing but inflationary.