The second REACH Registration of chemicals deadline took place last Friday May 31st 2013. This follows on from the first REACH Registration deadline in 2010 – which was for chemicals manufactured within the EU or else imported into the EU in quantities greater than 1000 metric Tonnes Per Annum (TPA).
There are now over 6500 chemicals REACH Registered since REACH was written into EU law in 2006.
REACH covers the EU and the EEA, but not Switzerland which is part of neither. Registrations for this year’s deadline were received by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) from twenty six of the twenty seven EU member states. REACH Registrations were also submitted in the non-EU but EEA Member States of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The highest percentage of Registrations came from Germany (31%), the UK (12%); with Italy, France and the Netherlands joint third at 8% each. These countries have a strong manufacturing and industrial base. Ireland submitted the eight highest amount of REACH Registrations amongst the EU countries.
ECHA received Dossiers for almost 3000 chemicals for 2013 that are manufactured within the EU or else imported into the EU in quantities of 100 to 1000 TPA. They received 9000 registration Dossiers in total, of which 1,800 were for Intermediates. Submissions came from over 3000 companies. 80% of Registrations came from Large companies while 20% were submitted by SME’s.
Almost a quarter of all submissions were made by Only Representatives (OR’s) on behalf of non-EU companies.
It is too early to comment on the quality of Dossier information, but more information will be available in September according to ECHA. Dossier screening will be done on the “key issues” of:
a) Substance identification and
b) the use of Substances as an Intermediate
ECHA will check the compliance of at least 5 % of 2013 dossiers by the end of 2016, with Evaluation of all testing proposals for 2013 Substances to be completed by the same date.
The final REACH Registration deadline for substances manufactured within or imported into the EU at over 1 TPA is 31 May 2018.