Seoul tries to import 10,000 tons of urea from over 10 countries

As the shortage of urea solution worsens, the South Korean government came up with measures to import 200 tons of urea for automobiles from Vietnam next week. However, the volume to be imported is only enough for one day and far less than what’s required to resolve the shortage issue.

The government held an inter-department meeting to deal with urea resolution shortage on Monday and decided to import 200 tons of urea for automobiles from Vietnam next week, which will make 600 tons of urea resolution. However, it is only day’s usage for automobiles in South Korea based on last year’s data.

The government is discussing importing an additional 10,000 tons of urea from over 10 countries. This will make about 30,000 tons of urea resolution, which will last 1.5 months for cars in South Korea. The government estimates that the average monthly usage of urea resolution for cars last year was about 20,000 tons.

The government announced a plan on Sunday to import 20,000 liters of urea resolution with military transport aircraft from Australia, but it increased the volume to 27,000 liters on Monday. Twenty thousand liters of urea resolution is only about three to four percent of daily use for cars in the country, which is far from being sufficient to resolve the shortage issue.

As a solution of importing from other countries seems not enough, the government is reviewing an option to lend some of the military’s reserve to the private sector. “We are in discussion with relevant departments regarding an option to lend the military’s reserve to where urea solution is urgently needed,” said a military source. The amount under such consideration is up to 200 tons. However, some say that it is inappropriate to release the military’s reserve, which is stockpiled for an emergency. Even if the military’s reserve is shared, it can only be provided to automobiles with emergency needs, such as fire trucks, as the demand for urea solution in the private sector is about 20,000 tons every month.


Teuk-Gyo Koo kootg@donga.com