Reach
What is Reach?
REACH (acronym of  Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) is the new community Ruling as regards chemical substances, approved on 18th December 2006 and published with number 1907/2006 in the Official Gazette of the European Community on 30th December 2006.
Since it is a Ruling, REACH does not require transposition into national legal systems and is therefore immediately applicable in all the Member States as from 1st June 2007, the date at which it enters into force, according to the times and methods laid down therein.
General principles
The ruling disciplines the manfacture, innovation on the market and the use of all chemical substances, produced in or imported into Europe, marketed as such or included in preparations or articles, exceeding the threshold of 1 tonne/year for each producer/importer.
Examples of identification of the products in the steel sector
On the basis of REACH definitions, as regards steel production, identification of the elements used and obtained in the production process may be summarised as shown below Eurofer directive, VDEh 29/08/2008).
Name in REACH | Definition |
SUBSTANCE | Iron ore and derivative products and metals which enter the analyses of various steels: Fe, Mn, Cr, Ni, Mo, Al etc. |
PREPARATION | Products such as Fe-alloys and additives such as lime, etc. |
ARTICLE | Products normally obtained through: Casting: to the state of semi-finished products, slabs, billets, blooms, etc. Rolling: to the state of rolled and cold re-rolled products, coils plate, bars rods, etc. Processing: to the state of transformed products, welded tubes, cans, structures, car body, doors, etc. |
On the basis of the above classification, the Arvedi Group is positioned as a producer of both rolled and transformed articles.
The substances contained in the articles produced by the Arvedi Group are not subject to release in reasonably predictable conditions of normal use.
Further information regarding Reach can be obtained from the websites of the individual companies.