A first shipment of urea is set to arrive in South Korea from China later Tuesday, which is expected to help address a supply crunch of urea solution, a key fluid needed in diesel cars to cut emissions.

A ship carrying 300 tons of urea will arrive in the southeastern city of Ulsan around 9 p.m. Tuesday after leaving from the Chinese eastern city of Tianjin on Saturday, officials said.

The government said it plans to accelerate necessary procedures to enable the urea to be used to produce urea solution upon arrival.

The shipment is imported by Lotte Fine Chemical, the country's biggest producer of urea solution. It is also part of the 18,700 tons of urea that have been under inspection by China for exports to South Korea.

Seoul's oceans ministry officials said the ministry will make concerted efforts with shipping firms to ensure ships carrying urea will arrive at local ports at appropriate times.

South Korea is grappling with the supply shortage of urea solution, as China imposed export curbs on urea to ease domestic supply bottlenecks in October. Beijing has decided to export the 18,700 tons of urea for which Korean firms had already signed contracts with Chinese exporters.

South Korea said 97.6 percent of its urea imports came from China in the first nine months of this year, up from 88 percent in 2020, underscoring its heavy reliance on the resource-rich neighbor for the key material. (Yonhap)