This notice announced that from 18 November 2011, the MEP would stop processing company requests to add into the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances in China (IECSC 2010) any new substance that was imported in or placed on the Chinese market before 15 October 2003 (the enactment date of MEP Order 7) *. This supplementary listing of existing substances, addressed as IECSC Supplementation in short, used to be extensively applied by chemical companies in the past several years as a means of exemption from the New Chemical Substance Notification. The SEPA, predecessor of MEP, once published a notice in 2007 to standardize the application procedure of IECSC Supplementation.

* The "new substance" means substance which has never been included in the IECSC. In contrast, a substance that has been included in IECSC is considered an existing substance in China.