Chemical Compliance for Electronics Imports
1 resources tagged with "Chemical Compliance"
Chemical compliance for electronics from China centers on EU REACH and its candidate list of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC), currently around 240 entries updated twice a year. The catch is Article 33: if any article in your product contains an SVHC above 0.1% by weight, you must pass that information down the chain and register it in the ECHA SCIP database before it enters the EU. Cables, connectors, and PVC housings are the usual offenders — DEHP plasticizer and lead in solder show up repeatedly in factory test reports.
When you actually source, chemical compliance means collecting valid SVHC declarations and recent third-party test reports per component, not a single blanket letter for the whole BOM. A common pitfall is accepting a supplier's self-declaration with no test data — we ask for SGS or equivalent reports tied to the specific material and date.
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FAQ
What is the SVHC threshold I need to worry about?
0.1% by weight per article. Above that for any listed SVHC, you owe Article 33 communication to recipients and a SCIP database entry to ECHA. The candidate list is updated roughly every January and June.
Will my Chinese supplier provide REACH documentation?
Established electronics factories usually can, but the quality varies. Insist on per-material test reports from an accredited lab rather than a generic declaration letter, and check the report date is recent enough to cover the current candidate list.
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