With warnings of another AdBlue shortage around the nation, local freight businesses like Gladrock Transport know all too well, that if the trucks stop – everything stops.
The Western Roads Federation issued a warning of another impending national AdBlue shortage earlier this month and Paul Webster, General Manager of Gladrock Transport cannot believe the price Adblue has risen to this year.
Mr Webster said Gladrock, which has a depot in Gladstone and one in Rockhampton, is one of the smaller transport companies but they use Adblue in 50 per cent of their fleet.
“Ever since the government stepped in to find a supply, the supply hasn’t been an issue this year, but the price of it has gone Ridiculous!,” Mr Webster said.
“With these price hikes you are talking a big increase for our services and it has a flow-on effect for everyone. It is usual to have a 2-3 per cent increase each year but you are talking about an increase of 10 per cent, and that’s staggering.”
Kennedy MP, Bob Katter, has written to the Minister for Transport, Hon Catherine King, and the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic earlier this month where he requested an immediate 18-month suspension of the AdBlue law which requires trucks and heavy vehicles to drive on the roads. His letters came after the Western Roads Federation warned the Federal Government of another impending national AdBlue shortage.
The National Farmers Federation also weighed in, requesting the Federal Government tap into the $500 million National Reconstruction Fund to support the manufacture and supply of urea. Mr Katter labelled the idea short-sighted given the enormous price of gas for producers, which was the final nail in the coffin for Incitec Pivot’s urea factory due to shut up shop in December this year.
“AdBlue is urea which is an ammonia nitrate natural gas. It will not matter how many people put their hands up to produce it – unless the Government can bring down the price of gas long term, it won’t be a survivable industry,” Mr Katter said.
“We have the highest-priced natural gas in the world. No one is going to produce urea in Australia, and this is a concept that is hard for an ordinary, intelligent-thinking person to understand because it is so unbelievable.
“There is a law in this country that ensures every truck in Australia will go off the road if they do not provide a constant, affordable supply of AdBlue.
“The regulations must be removed for a least 18 months and in that time, we must return to Reserve Resource Policy like every other major western country. The world is not going to come to an end if that is done.
“To use Government money to attract more producers is enormously illogical. With the free market and all its fang and claw, all our gas was swiftly sold off overseas for around 6c a unit. We Australians now buy it back at $16 a unit. Reserve Resource Policy will bring the price of gas down and make the industry profitable, long term.
“So now we are in this situation where food is going up, fuel is going up, fertiliser is going up, electricity is going up. If the AdBlue dries up, the whole country will be in dire straits, not just the farmers or truckies.
Mr Katter said that Reserve Resource Policy would solve the issue long term, but State Governments needed to also rubber stamp gas projects that are under development and release the gas immediately for domestic use to bring down costs in the short term.
“If you put ethanol in your tank and take the cancer-inducing aromatics out of petrol, you would be dramatically reducing the CO2 small particle problems and the carcinogenic problems that exist with petrol at the current moment. You might be a bit worse off with your diesel, but you’ll be a hell of a lot better off overall with the health environmental benefits,” Mr Katter said.
Mr Webster said Gladrock had been looking at purchasing electric vehicles, one to be based in Gladstone and one in Rockhampton, but he said it is commercially unviable and they simply can’t access any to purchase.
Source: https://cqtoday.com.au/news/2022/07/17/warning-of-adblue-shortage-on-the-horizon/
