The February 2026 disruption of the Strait of Hormuz revealed a category of supply chain vulnerabilities that conventional energy security frameworks pay limited attention to. This paper introduces the concept of “manufactured criticalities” – industrial intermediaries whose strategic importance is structurally invisible within conventional security frameworks, becoming visible only at the point of failure. We use sulfuric acid to examine how a hydrocarbon byproduct has become indispensable to fertilizer production, critical mineral processing, and the energy transition. The Arabian Gulf accounts for roughly a quarter of global sulfur production and approximately half of all seaborne sulfur trade.
