SABIC Europe makes first Reach pre-registrations

09 June 2008 12:04  [Source: ICIS news]

By Nigel Davis

LONDON (ICIS news)--SABIC Europe has pre-registered an initial number of substances under the EU’s Reach chemicals control legislation, the petrochemicals maker said on Monday.

The initial work had allowed it to test the EU's Reach IT systems, communicate in the pre-substance information exchange forum (SIEF) and share experiences with members of existing consortia of chemical makers that will pre-register and register some high-volume chemicals, it said.

The pre-registration phase of the EU’s registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (Reach) scheme began on 1 June and runs until 30 November.

The SIEF and consortia are designed to help companies share information and speed up the Reach registration and evaluation, or testing, processes.

Companies that do not pre-register substances under Reach will not be able to sell them into the EU market until they are fully registered under the legislation.

SABIC said the petrochemicals it produces in Europe and imports from Saudi Arabia are mainly high-volume chemicals which need to be addressed in the first phase of Reach.

The company will have until 2010 to complete what it calls the “huge task of preparing dossiers for all its substances".

It said, however that it has processes in place to provide the EU’s new Helsinki-based chemicals agency with dossiers within the required timeline.

Companies were cautioned by the UK’s chemicals trade association last week not to rush to pre-register substances under Reach and possibly overburden the new Reach IT systems.

However, compliance with the new regulation is moving fast within Europe at the corporate and the national level.

Both the Norwegian and UK governments have made significant Reach advances, law firm Allen & Overy said on Monday.

Reach has been implemented in Norway, which is complying with the new rules even though it is not an EU member.

The UK government had published a second and final consultation paper on a Reach enforcement regime, in advance of implementation, it added.

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By: Nigel Davis
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