CAS 57-13-6 · AICIS · Australia

Urea under AICIS

CH4N2O · 尿素

Status: Listed. Urea is on the AICIS (Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme; replaced NICNAS on 1 July 2020 under the Industrial Chemicals Act 2019, verify against https://www.industrialchemicals.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are-and-what-we-do) Inventory of Industrial Chemicals as a Listed Industrial Chemical. Urea is NOT classified as hazardous, NOT SUSMP scheduled, NOT a regulated dangerous good for transport. The regulatory profile in Australia is among the lightest of any high-volume industrial chemical.

AICIS treats urea as the lightest possible regulatory profile and the importer side just needs current registration plus a brief Australian-format WHS SDS. The complexity sits in state-level fertiliser-registration and AdBlue / DEF quality certification, not in AICIS itself. Australian agricultural demand is structural (CSBP and Incitec Pivot domestic production cannot meet domestic demand) and ChAFTA preferential zero-duty makes the China-Australia urea lane competitive. Russian and Belarusian alternative supply is constrained by Australia's sanctions screening since 2022.

Listing and threshold

Substance Urea (CAS 57-13-6), CH4N2O
Regime Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS), administered by the Department of Health
Jurisdiction Australia
Status Listed
Tonnage threshold AICIS introducer registration required for any business introducing >100 kg/year of any industrial chemical

Classifications under this regime

  • Listed Industrial Chemical on AICIS Inventory
  • NOT classified as hazardous under Australian GHS
  • NOT SUSMP scheduled (no Schedule 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 entry)
  • NOT a regulated dangerous good under Australian Dangerous Goods (ADG 7.7) Code (urea is non-DG)
  • WHS Regulation 2011 nuisance-dust handling rules apply
  • Australian fertiliser-grade specification (state-level Department of Agriculture / Primary Industries) applies for agricultural distribution

Restrictions and conditions of use

  • No AICIS-specific use restrictions
  • No SUSMP or ADG restrictions
  • State fertiliser registration applies (NSW DPI, QLD DAF, VIC DEDJTR, WA DPIRD): each state has separate fertiliser-product registration requirements for agricultural sale
  • AdBlue / DEF certification per Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) requirements for diesel-exhaust applications

Importer obligations

The Australian importer of record must be registered with AICIS (online registration is straightforward and annual). For Listed Industrial Chemicals like urea no individual chemical assessment is required. The operator-relevant complexity is at the state-level fertiliser-registration step, not the Federal AICIS step. Australia is a structural net-importer of urea (Western Australia, Queensland, NSW agricultural demand exceeds domestic CSBP and Incitec Pivot capacity); ChAFTA preferential zero-duty makes the China-Australia lane competitive.

Required documents

  • AICIS introducer registration certificate (annual)
  • WHS-compliant Safety Data Sheet (Safe Work Australia model code format; brief, minimal hazards)
  • Customs entry (ICS / ABF) with HS code 31021000
  • State-level fertiliser-product registration (separate for each state of distribution)
  • API Diesel Exhaust Fluid or ISO 22241 certification if marketed as AdBlue / DEF
  • DCCEEW certification if marketed for diesel-exhaust applications

Common compliance traps

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

  • AICIS registration must be CURRENT at customs clearance; lapsed registrations trigger holds at first arrival
  • State fertiliser registrations are independent of Federal AICIS; verify all destination-state registrations before invoicing
  • AdBlue / DEF Australian quality scheme is more rigorous than basic fertiliser specification; do not commingle product classifications
  • Australian agricultural-grade urea seasonality (Western Australia winter cropping, Queensland summer cropping) drives import-volume timing
  • Tax administration agricultural fertiliser GST treatment differs from industrial-grade urea; verify destination-buyer GST registration
  • ChAFTA preferential zero-duty applies to Chinese-origin urea but NOT to Russian / Belarusian / Iranian alternatives currently subject to sanctions screening

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 AICIS, see the AICIS 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

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