Chemical Industry achieved successful pre-registration

12-04-2008: With Pre-Registration coming to an end, the first phase of the REACH process has successfully been concluded by the chemical industry. Looking at the impressive number of more than two million pre-registrations, Cefic feels that its relentless efforts in helping its members and the ongoing cooperation with ECHA have paid off.

One difficulty that companies were facing was the sometimes poor accessibility and slow response of the REACH-IT system because of highly underestimated numbers of pre-registrations forecasted. Other issues encountered by industry were mainly related to the late availability of the bulk pre-registration option in the REACH-IT system - six weeks after the opening of the pre-registration period - and the changing of rules, especially in the field of double pre-registration at the last stage: This created anxiety in companies and the need to review the pre-registration strategy at a very late stage.

Says Alain Perroy, Cefic Director General: “Chemical industry demonstrated its commitment to make REACH a success; we did it! When we started, we knew there would be some delays and that some rules were still to be clarified. But over time, and thanks to the good cooperation with all stakeholders, we managed to overcome all the main problems. I would like to thank all our members, our staff and the people working at the Agency”.

However, the challenge does not end today. The most demanding step now will be the creation and the management of Substance Information Exchange Fora (SIEF), to prepare the registration dossiers according to the volume bands foreseen by REACH. Given the high number of pre-registrations, the distinction between ‘active’ and ‘not active’ members in each SIEF needs to be managed. SIEFReach is the platform developed by Cefic subsidiary ReachLink to help companies cope with this complex process. The first registrations have to be completed in two years from now.

Cefic, as well as through its subsidiaries ReachLink and ReachCentrum, will continue to offer to the whole industry the tools and expertise required for the successful implementation of REACH.