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A sign seen hanging at a gas station in Seoul on Monday alerts customers that the station has run out of urea water solution, a substance used in diesel vehicles. (Yonhap News)

China is permitting exports to proceed for 18,700 tons of urea headed to South Korean companies. Some of the industrial urea that had been tied up in China is already en route from the port of Qingdao, and Korea has arranged to receive another 5,000 tons from Vietnam.

“We’ve confirmed that exports will proceed for 18,700 tons of urea [10,300 of which is for vehicular use] that Korean companies are under contract to receive from China. This morning [Nov. 10], a ship loaded with 2,700 tons of industrial urea left the Chinese port of Qingdao, and 300 tons of vehicular urea is scheduled to depart around Nov. 18,” the South Korean government said in the third meeting of a cross-departmental task force on the urea supply on Wednesday.

10,300 tons of vehicular urea would give Korea enough urea water solution — used to cut exhaust emissions in diesel vehicles — to last for about a month and a half. Military aircraft will also be bringing in 27,000 liters of urea water solution from Australia on Thursday. Of that shipment, 2,000-3,000 liters are slated for emergency vehicles, including commercial ambulances.

It’s also being reported that the government has acquired additional urea from Vietnam. A Vietnamese company will be shipping 5,000 tons of urea to Korea in early December, but it hasn’t been confirmed whether that urea can be used in vehicles.

“If the urea isn’t appropriate for vehicular use, it will be used to make industrial urea water solution,” the government said.

On Wednesday, the government placed the supply of urea and urea water solution under its oversight, which means the Public Procurement Service can purchase the materials directly and place them in its reserves.

“We will find other sources of urea overseas and have the Public Procurement Service quickly conclude import contracts. We will work to fast-track customs clearance to ensure the imported urea can be brought into the country without delay by accepting import papers before the materials enter the port. We will take all available measures to ensure the urea is quickly put into production, converted to diesel exhaust fluid, and put on the market,” the government said.

The government believes that Korea’s total supply of urea — including what’s left in the country and what’s set to arrive from overseas — should be enough to keep vehicles supplied for as long as three months.

“Adding up what we’ve already lined up from Australia, what we’re scheduled to import from China and Vietnam, what we’ve found in the country through on-site inspections, and what’s been stockpiled at military bases, we have about two and a half months’ worth of diesel exhaust fluid. When we factor in other sources of domestic urea that we haven’t turned up yet, we should have enough to last up to three months,” the government said.

The 200,000 liters of diesel exhaust fluid stored up at military bases will be provided on a priority basis to the import-export logistics sector starting at 2 pm on Thursday. The army reserves will be supplied to container trucks used for imports and exports at 32 gas stations near Korea’s five major ports (Busan, Incheon, Gwangyang, Pyeongtaek, and Ulsan).

The diesel exhaust fluid will be sold at the standard price of around 1,200 won per liter, but each vehicle will only be sold 30 liters to stretch the supply. That’s enough fluid to supply 7,000 of the approximately 10,000 container trucks that require it.

By Lee Ji-hye, staff reporter

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