Korea names first three suppliers to keep road salt moving in heavy snow

The interior ministry said Tuesday it has designated three companies as the country's first state disaster-management support firms in the snow-removal chemical sector, creating a pool of pre-vetted suppliers that can be called on when heavy snow drives up emergency demand for road salt.

IpoCom, Segye Chemical and Jeil Trading were named at a ceremony at the government complex in Seoul. The ministry said it selected the three after a process that began in July and involved an open call, a review of documents and on-site inspections, followed by deliberation by a designation committee drawn from relevant government bodies and outside experts.

The government can name private companies as national disaster-management support firms to build a reliable supply chain for goods needed in emergencies. In the snow-removal chemical sector, storage constraints meant agencies stockpiled only part of the de-icing chemicals they needed and bought the rest as required, making it hard to secure emergency volumes in time. In other cases, companies that won contracts at low prices could not deliver, leaving agencies without supplies by the start of the winter response period, and in one case a contractor's supplier provided de-icing chemicals that failed quality standards, prompting the receiving agency to refuse them and delaying delivery.

"De-icing chemicals are the most essential resource for responding to heavy snow in winter," Kim Kwang-yong, head of the ministry's disaster and safety management headquarters, said. "With this designation as a starting point, we will use the strong capabilities of these support companies to deliver de-icing chemicals quickly to sites in any heavy snow situation."