Urea prices reached record highs in June 2008, increasing the pressure on the AdBlue market’s already tight margins. With additional pressure from the soaring price of automotive diesel, and growing doubt over the health of the commercial vehicles market AdBlue suppliers are heading for uncertain times.

The root causes of skyrocketing oil prices remained unclear at the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid this week, but one thing was becoming increasingly evident. Access to “easy oil” will henceforth be “limited”, as Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer put it, while BP boss Tony Hayward spoke of the era of “cheap energy” being over. (more…)