Is it because of the resale caused by the panic in South Korea? What is going on with Japan's soaring urea water prices?

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At the end of 2021, urea, the raw material for AdBlue, which replenishes diesel vehicles in South Korea, was not available, causing a panic that restricted the operation of diesel vehicles. Japanese resellers have noticed the lack of urea water. [Image gallery] Current state of urea water supply in Japan and a diesel engine equipped model that uses AdBlue (12 photos).There are frequent cases where urea water is purchased on internet auctions and resale sites and put up for sale in large quantities. As a result, the domestic supply of urea water was also affected. According to an active truck driver, there was a stand that sold it with a limit of "up to 5L at a time". It is said that the urea consumed in Japan can be produced domestically, but the urea shortage in South Korea is causing damage to Japan as well. How has the situation changed in 2022? Is it an improvement trend, or is it a situation where the price rises and has an impact on logistics? I would like to report the latest situation. Text/Hideyuki Takane, Photo/AdobeStock (top image = algre@AdobeStock), MITSUBISHI, TOYOTA, BMW

■Why do trucks need urea water?

From around November 2021, there was a supply shortage of AdBlue (urea water), and sales were restricted in some places (Moab Republic@AdobeStock)

Only truck drivers and some owners of clean diesel vehicles were affected, so many people may not have noticed, but from around November 2021, a supply shortage of urea water called AdBlue occurred, and gas stations It seems that some places have a sales limit of up to 5L at a time. As for what AdBlue is used for, it is injected into the SCR catalyst, one of the post-treatment devices that purify the exhaust gas from diesel engines. As a result, NOx (nitrogen oxides) and urea (CH4N20) in the exhaust gas react and are reduced to N2 (nitrogen) and H2O (water), realizing much cleaner exhaust gas than before. .

■ Sudden changes in South Korea's supply situation have spread to Japan

The urea water shortage caused by the urea supply shortage can be traced back to the US-China friction ( aijiro@AdobeStock)

In the case of clean diesel for passenger cars, it depends on the frequency of use of the car, but if it costs about 1000 yen once every six months, I don't care, but when it comes to trucks of transportation companies, the story is different (vladim_ka @AdobeStock)

This AdBlue turmoil started with US-China friction. As Australia, which sided with the United States, hardened its stance on trade and diplomacy with China, China suspended coal imports as a retaliatory measure. As a result, the production of ammonia, which is the raw material of urea, decreased, and the export of urea was restricted. "South Korea was the most troubled by this." This is because South Korea has relied on imports from China for almost all of its urea. This is similar to Japan's export restrictions on the raw materials necessary for the manufacture of semiconductors. However, in the case of AdBlue, the economy was hit directly not by the raw materials and chemicals used in the factory, but by the goods used directly in the logistics field and trucks. As a result, trading companies rushed to import AdBlue from Japan and bought it, which seems to have affected the domestic supply of AdBlue. And when resellers heard about it, they rushed to buy up the remaining AdBlue on the market, which probably exacerbated the shortage. There was a temporary supply shortage in Japan as well. At first, I thought they were trying to make money by bringing AdBlue purchased in Japan to South Korea, but as soon as it became scarce in Japan, I began to see people reselling it domestically at higher prices. The price peak seems to be around the beginning of 2022, and just by looking it up on the internet, the 20L AdBlue was over 13,000 yen. It will be around 7 times the normal price, and it seems that there are drivers who had to purchase at this price. By the way, there has been a big difference in the regular price of AdBlue depending on the purchase method. Purchasing at a gas station is easy because it can be replenished on the spot, but it seems that the price was quite good even before the price rise, around 100 yen to 200 yen per liter. Even so, many owners felt that the cost of about 1,000 yen was not a big burden for clean diesel vehicles, as long as they only needed to replenish it once every six months. If this were a truck, the replenishment frequency and amount used would be different depending on the difference in mileage, so it seems that the AdBlue riot this time had a considerable impact. AdBlue is also available at dealers and auto parts sales companies, and can also be purchased online. It is sold in 10L and 20L cardboard boxes, so it seems that more and more people are buying these directly. For transportation companies, increasing costs would cause serious damage, so it seems that many companies were forced to deal with it at one point. For this reason, it seems that many transportation companies have started to purchase large quantities of items that they used to replenish at gas stations and stock them at the company. Soaring fuel prices have become a problem these days, but some say that AdBlue is also on the rise, perhaps due to the recent turmoil. Even so, it seems that the supply has already stabilized in Japan as manufacturers have increased production. There are still resellers who offer high prices, but it is rumored that some resellers have died in explosions, as truck equipment dealers usually sell them at around 4000 yen for 20L. Even if you look at individual flea market apps, you will find that the current prices are the same as before the riot, so if you gather information on the Internet, you won't be forced to get expensive AdBlue.