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China Customs Return Imported Coatings with Hazardous Substances Exceeding the Standards

Since the beginning of 2021, there have been several cases in which products were returned due to non-compliance with mandatory national standards. Importers and manufacturers shall pay attention to the implementation date of the mandatory standards, to avoid the products being returned or destroyed.

To strengthen the source control of VOC emission, China has formulated and updated a series of mandatory national standards for products containing VOCs, such as GB 30981-2020 for industrial protective coatings, GB 38507-2020 for inks, GB 30508-2020 for cleaning agents, etc. To date, except that GB 38507 will enter into effect on April 1st, 2021, all standards have taken effect (ChemLinked News).

Since the beginning of 2021, local customs have tightened the importation of coatings and other products. So far, there have been several cases in which products were returned due to non-compliance with mandatory national standards.

In January 2021, Tianjin Customs inspected a batch of imported coating product named bitumen and found that the VOC content of the product was 794.4g/L, which exceeded the limit value 500g/L specified in GB 30981-2020 by 44.4%. For the product did not meet the requirements of a mandatory national standard, Tianjin Customs finally decided to return it.

Shanghai Customs also found a batch of imported coating did not meet the limits for VOC content that specified in GB 30981 in January as well. At present, Shanghai Customs has seized the batch of coating in accordance with the law and will destroy it in the future.

Recently, two customs in Guangdong Province have also returned several batches of imported coatings that do not meet the requirements for harmful substances. Xinsha Customs under the Huangpu Customs inspected 2 batches of coatings and found that the total content of glycol ethers and ether esters and the total content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exceeded the GB 30981-2020 limits by 5 times and 17 times. Xinsha Customs has issued a return notice for the two batches of coatings and notified the enterprise to handle the return procedures in accordance with regulations. In addition, Gongbei Customs ordered a trading company in Zhuhai to return the six imported formaldehyde coatings, which has been the third batch of imported coating product with excessive formaldehyde detected by Gongbei Customs since the implementation of GB18582-2020 on December 1, 2020.

It could be predicted that all imported products subject to the VOC standards will be inspected whether in compliance by local customs. The imported coatings and other products that do not meet the requirements for limits of harmful substances will be returned or destroyed, importers shall pass the implementation information of relevant standards to overseas manufacturers in advance to ensure product compliance. The customs also reminded consumers that they should purchase imported paints from regular channels to avoid harm to their health.

To help our subscribers better understand China VOC management, ChemLinked Chemical Portal has updated China VOC page. Relevant training videos, reports, and translations, etc. are integrated on this page, to provide stakeholders with comprehensive interpretation of policies and strategies for product compliance.

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