On Jan 10, LX International announced that it will bring 1,100 tons of Chinese urea that has been secured through the urea fertilizer plant in China that the company invested in to Korea.

Recently approved by the Chinese government for exportation, this urea supply is part of the 10,000 tons of Chinese urea that was urgently secured by LX International last November when Korea had difficulties with urea scarcity. The urea will arrive at Busan Port on Jan 11th, and it will be entirely supplied to the automobile urea solution manufacturers. 1,100 tons of urea may generate 3,100,000 liters of urea solution.  

LX International plans to gradually bring the remaining 8,900 tons of urea to Korea. Among the remaining amount, 4,200 tons of urea will be imported to Korea during February once it acquires exportation approval by the Chinese government. The company has been also sought to implement the relevant procedures to bring the remaining 4,700 tons of urea as soon as possible.  

■ Securing a stable supply through the overseas investment asset which is an urea fertilizer plant in China

Even though LX International is not a urea supplying company, it has been possible to significantly contribute to improving the urea crisis in Korea through the urgent securement of 10,000 tons of urea from China because it has an urea fertilizer plant in China as the corporate investment asset.

In 2013, LX International acquired a 29% share of the Bodashidi urea fertilizer plant under the agreement with the Boyuan Group in China. As a result, it became the first Korean enterprise that entered the Chinese coal chemical engineering industry. Located in Nei Menggu, China, this plant produces 1,000,000 tons of urea annually, and LX International has acquired the sales rights of its urea production to Korea and Southeast Asia.    

According to LX International, this achievement has created positive aspects that the company-invested urea production allows for the stable securement and supply of Chinese urea. Besides, the excellent quality of urea production can be applied to any available kinds including agricultural fertilizer, industrial timber, and automobile urea solution which requires the best quality only.  

■ Consistent strengthening of public-private partnership activities for the diversified supply chain of major items including urea, etc.

Last November when logistical chaos was expected in Korea due to the automobile urea solution crisis especially where the Korean urea market had a high level of dependency on China, LX International fully operated its global network including overseas corporations and branches to achieve the stabilization of domestic urea supply as public benefit.

The outcome of the company’s efforts was emergency securement and the importation of 3,300 tons of automobile urea solution from Southeast Asia including Vietnam and Singapore, etc. To be more specific, the company was able to bring the urea and urea solution to Korea in its early stages because of the complete support provided by the Korean government. The Korean government including the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in China and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy offered active support for preferential export approval by requesting the exportation support to the Chinese government with an official cooperative document.

LX International discussed that it will apply its roughly 50 global business sites and overseas marketing capabilities to perform public-private partnership activities for diversification and the stabilization of the supply chain of major items including urea. As a part of its plan, LX International concluded business agreements last December regarding the urea supply chain diversification with the Korea Urea Alliance which consists of 41 domestic urea-related companies along with other major urea suppliers.

The future plan of LX International is to conclude a collective purchase contract with overseas suppliers based on the combined demand of the Korea Urea Alliance, while at the same time providing rapid responses by fully mobilizing available networks in the case of the emergency urea supply crisis.

Furthermore, the company will strengthen the global supply chain monitoring at a private level such as managing the global market trend and domestic supply of major items while providing early measures through close cooperation with the government if any problematic symptoms are detected.

[Reference] The urea fertilizer plant in Nei Menggu, China where LX International invested in