CAS 57-13-6 · IECSC · People's Republic of China

Urea under IECSC

CH4N2O · 尿素

Status: Listed. Urea is on the IECSC public portion as a foundational industrial chemical and one of China's largest single-volume industrial outputs (~63 Mt/yr production, second-largest globally after India). New-substance notification under MEE Decree No. 7 (2010) is NOT required. Urea is NOT on China's Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals and NOT on the Easily-Made Drugs Precursor Chemicals Catalog (this is the practitioner-relevant fact: ammonia IS scheduled but urea is NOT). The binding regulatory layer is fertiliser export-policy, not chemical-handling permits.

Urea is the inversion of the chemical-overlay pattern: NOT hazardous, NOT a drug precursor, NO Public Security Bureau involvement; the binding constraint is Beijing's fertiliser export-policy lever. Periodic export-license freezes (2008, 2021-2023, October 2023) demonstrate that Chinese urea is treated as a strategic food-security commodity, not a freely-tradeable industrial chemical. Sourzi-relevant practice: include force majeure for export-quota events in long-term contracts; verify export-license status before committing FOB pricing; monitor domestic coal-feedstock cost as the structural urea-price driver.

Listing and threshold

Substance Urea (CAS 57-13-6), CH4N2O
Regime China Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances (IECSC), administered by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE)
Jurisdiction People's Republic of China
Status Listed
Tonnage threshold No new-substance threshold applies. No hazardous-chemicals permit required (urea is not classified as hazardous in China).

Classifications under this regime

  • NOT listed in China's Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals (urea is non-hazardous in Chinese GB classification)
  • NOT on China's Highly Toxic Chemicals Catalog
  • NOT on the Easily-Made Drugs Precursor Chemicals Catalog (note: ammonia IS scheduled, urea is NOT)
  • GB/T 2440-2017 specification applies for fertiliser-grade urea (technical-grade also has its own GB standard)
  • GACC export classification: HS 31021000 (fertiliser-grade)

Restrictions and conditions of use

  • No Hazardous Chemicals Operation Permit required (substance not classified hazardous)
  • No Easily-Made Drugs Precursor Permit required (substance not scheduled)
  • **Customs Inspection Order (出口商品检验法) applies for fertiliser exports since 2021** (formerly 2008 inspection requirement reinstated)
  • **China has imposed periodic export quotas / restrictions on urea: 2008, 2021-2023, October 2023 export-license freeze, 2024 ongoing controls.** Domestic food-security policy can override export commitments at short notice.
  • 0% VAT export rebate per current bulletin (down from 13% in 2007 to 0% by 2010, deliberate Beijing food-security signal)

Importer obligations

For Chinese-origin urea exported abroad, the foreign importer faces no IECSC obligation but should be aware of the periodic export-quota / license-freeze risk on the Chinese side. The 2021-2023 export-license freeze and the October 2023 freeze caused multi-month shipment delays for committed contracts. Sourzi-side practice: Chinese fertiliser-export contracts should include force majeure clauses covering Beijing-imposed export quotas and license freezes.

Required documents

  • GACC export declaration with HS code 31021000
  • Fertiliser-grade certificate per GB/T 2440-2017 (or technical-grade equivalent)
  • GHS-compliant SDS in Chinese (per GB/T 17519, brief because minimal hazards)
  • Customs Inspection Order export-inspection certificate (since 2021)
  • Coal-route or gas-route process declaration (where buyer requires for downstream EU CBAM compliance)

Common compliance traps

The pitfalls that have bitten importers on this lane in the past. None of these is theoretical.

  • **Chinese export-policy lever is the dominant operator concern, not the chemical-handling regulatory layer.** Periodic export-license freezes (most recently October 2023) cause multi-month delays on committed contracts
  • 0% VAT export rebate (down from 13% historically) reflects Beijing's food-security policy preference for domestic urea supply over export volume
  • Coal-route vs natural-gas-route urea have different carbon-intensity scores; ~70% of Chinese urea is coal-routed (higher CO2) which becomes binding under EU CBAM Phase 1 from 2026
  • Customs Inspection Order requires sample testing per GB/T 2440-2017 specification; failed batches are blocked at export
  • Anti-dumping investigations from importing markets (India, Brazil, EU) are intermittent; monitor active cases before invoicing
  • Domestic urea pricing is heavily influenced by coal-feedstock cost; coal price volatility translates to urea export-price volatility

Where to read next

For substance-level identifiers (formula, molecular weight, SMILES, InChIKey), GHS hazard profile, IMDG transport class, and full sourcing reference for urea, see the CAS 57-13-6 sourcing reference.

For grade-by-grade buying notes, freight maths, supplier-tier pricing, and a worked landed-cost example, the urea cornerstone hub covers the full sourcing chain.

For the structure and history of IECSC, see the IECSC glossary entry.

Need cross-jurisdiction compliance support on this substance? Run it through the REACH / TSCA / IECSC / AICIS / K-REACH checker, or send us the substance and the destination and we will quote FOB China and CIF / DDP landed including the regulatory work on the destination side.

Read next

Cross-jurisdiction profile and sourcing references

Referenced in

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