China Shaking Korea, Is a 'Second AdBlue Crisis' Brewing... Emergency Measures for Funeral Coffins, Cardboard, and De-icers Underway

At the entrance of a gas station in Seoul, a tape marked with an X is attached to the AdBlue sales sign.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Seo-young] Amid the ongoing urea solution shortage, predictions have emerged that a second urea solution crisis could occur due to the impact of China's power shortage on funeral supplies and corrugated cardboard.

According to an SBS report on the 20th, a funeral supplies manufacturing factory in Gyeonggi Province has only about a month's stock left of Chinese-made paulownia wood used to produce funeral coffins. A factory official, who has been operating the factory for 32 years, expressed difficulties, saying that such a supply crisis had never happened before.

This is due to the power supply shortage in China that has continued since last October. As China completely halted imports of Australian coal, worsening the power shortage, the operation of wood production factories also decreased. Additionally, overlapping regulations by Chinese authorities on wood factories that cause air pollution have disrupted the supply of raw materials.

The corrugated cardboard manufacturing industry has also faced a similar situation. The prices surged sharply due to the shortage of corrugated cardboard sub-materials such as caustic soda and borax supplied from China. Kim Jin-moo, Executive Director of the Korea Corrugated Packaging Industry Cooperative, said in an interview with the media, "They asked us to raise the price about twice for the sub-materials, so we had no choice but to increase it."

Also, calcium chloride used as a de-icing agent is mostly imported from China, but its price has risen about threefold compared to last year, raising concerns ahead of the winter season. In response, the government announced plans to investigate the supply status of 20 key items with high external dependence, such as magnesium, tungsten, and lithium, and to introduce an early warning system.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.