Emergency Management Australia driving industry collaboration on AdBlue

In mid-December the Australian Government charged its crisis management agency, Emergency Management Australia (EMA) with addressing shortages of urea, an essential input in the manufacture of AdBlue, the exhaust system additive used in diesel engines to control noxious emissions.

The first steps involved the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) granting an interim exemption to allow AdBlue manufacturers, suppliers and other stakeholders to collaborate to address AdBlue supply shortages without breaching Competition Laws.

HVIA Chief Executive Todd Hacking has been taking part in meetings facilitated by EMA, which is known as a National Coordination Mechanism (NCM).

“Stocks of AdBlue are now steadily improving across priority sites and localised production has been ramping up at an ever-increasing rate,” Mr Hacking said.

Mr Hacking said confirmation of local supply should give everyone confidence that the situation is being resolved, and there is no need to stockpile AdBlue.

“It is still crucial that businesses do not hoard the product so those that need supplies have access to them until the situation normalises.”

Incitec Pivot Limited (IPL) is targeting production of 3 million litres of AdBlue a week from 16 January.

The Government is confident that the combination of IPL’s production schedule and ongoing imports means that  will enable petrol stations and other distributors to replenish their inventory  over the coming weeks.

“The NCM has been a great success in bringing together Government, industry and other stakeholders with meetings held almost every two days across the Christmas and New Year break.  This has been an incredible effort to everyone involved, In what has been a challenging issue.

Mr Hacking said HVIA had begun actively collaborating with Government on resolving the issue from the moment international shortages were first identified.

“Many HVIA members have a large stake in this issue and are active participants in ensuring the security of supply to market is guaranteed as soon as possible,” he said.


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