Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 230/6/14

30 October 2008

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 541/2008

European Union (EU)* : Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) and Intermediate List of Pre-registered Substances under REACH

Further to our Commercial Information Circular No. 376/2008 of 21 July 2008, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has recently published the candidate list of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) and the intermediate list of pre-registered substances. These two lists can be accessed through the following links:

Candidate List of SVHC:
http://echa.europa.eu/chem_data/candidate_list_table_en.asp

Intermediate List of Pre-registered Substances:
http://apps.echa.europa.eu/preregistered/pre-registered-sub.aspx

DETAILS

1.  
2. According to REACH, chemicals, preparations and articles containing SVHC are subject to authorisation and notification requirements. While the list of SVHC should be made available by 1 June 2009, the ECHA recently published a candidate list which contains 15 substances. The candidate list will be regularly updated when additional substances are identified as SVHC. Interested parties are urged to check their potential legal obligations resulting from the inclusion of SVHC in the candidate list. Details are set out in the relevant press release at the following link:
   http://echa.europa.eu/doc/press/pr_08_38_candidate_list_20081028.pdf
    
3. Separately, the ECHA also published the intermediate list of pre-registered substances which contains over 37,700 substances that were pre-registered by 1 October 2008. The purpose of the list is to give downstream users of chemicals a possibility to determine whether substances of their interest are already pre-registered. For details please refer to the press release at the following link: 
   http://echa.europa.eu/doc/press/pr_08_33_prs_list_20081007.pdf

ENQUIRIES

4. For enquiries concerning the contents of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5684.

Yours faithfully,

(Chandler CHAN)

for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.