South Korea Urges Companies to Meet Chemical Pre-registration Deadline

Pre-registration of existing substances (≥1t/y) before 30 Jun 2019 is necessary to be eligible for the phase-in registration grace period. Manufacturers/importers/OR need to pick up the pace as the pre-registration deadline is approaching.

Existing chemical substances manufactured or imported at or above 1 ton per year need to be pre-registered under K-REACH before 30 June 2019. The manufacture or importation volume can be determined based on the records in years 2016 to 2018.

K-REACH regulation has been revised to make it more like EU REACH. According to the revised K-REACH (effective on 1 Jan 2019), only chemicals that are pre-registered before 30 Jun 2019 can have a grace period to manufacture/import chemicals before the corresponding registration deadline.

Deadlines for phase-in registration are set as below:

>1000 t/y; or designated 364 CMRs above 1 t/y: by 31 Dec 2021
100-1000 t/y: by 31 Dec 2024
10-100 t/y: by 31 Dec 2027
1-10 t/y: by 31 Dec 2030

Below is the information required to submit for pre-registration:

Basic information of manufacturers/importers/OR
Substance information
Annual production/import volume
Classification and label
Uses (55 categories to select)

However, the 510 priority existing chemicals (PECs) that were published on 1 Jul 2015 and are subject to joint registration before 30 June 2018 are not eligible for pre-registration and the corresponding full registration grace period. They should be registered immediately.

*Please refer to the article "K-REACH Pre-registration: Concise Overview of Critical Checkpoints" to learn more about exemptions and compliance requirements.