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This photo shows urea water solution at a factory in Ansan, 42 kilometers south of Seoul, amid a supply crunch of the product that is used to reduce emissions in diesel vehicles. (Yonhap) |
LX International Corp., the general trading arm of LX Group, said Monday 1,100 tons of urea will arrive in South Korea from China this week.
The shipment -- the first batch from an import contract with China for 10,000 tons of urea -- will arrive in the southeastern port city of Busan on Tuesday, LX International said.
In November, the trading company secured the amount in a move to help address a supply crunch of urea solution, a key fluid needed in diesel cars to cut emissions.
The firm said it secured urea from a urea fertilizer plant in China in which it invested in 2013.
LX International said the second batch, or 4,200 tons, will arrive in South Korea next month, adding that due procedures are under way to bring in the rest of the contracted amount at the earliest possible date.
South Korea had experienced a supply shortage of urea solution after China imposed export curbs on urea in October to ease domestic supply bottlenecks. South Korea is heavily dependent on China for urea imports.
Supply has since been stabilized after all-out efforts by the South Korean government and private firms to secure urea solution.
As of end-December, the daily average of production of urea solution had come to around 1.2 million liters, twice as much as the daily consumption, and around 500,000 liters had been imported per day on average, according to the finance ministry.
South Korea currently secures about a six-month stockpile of urea solution and has been working to secure additional supplies from countries other than China to diversify import channels and to obviate such shortages, the ministry added. (Yonhap)
