SABIC completed its REACH pre-registration successfully on October 10, 2008
October 27, 2008
Hereby we have extended our REACH license-to-produce and license-to-import to December 2010. As from now, SABIC officially will start the registration process for 90 chemical substances. These products are partly manufactured in Europe, but chemicals & polymers imported from Saudi Arabia are also covered.
SABIC is one of the first companies that finalized the REACH pre-registration for its complete portfolio well before the official deadline 1st December 2008. Within the Dutch industry SABIC is considered to be one of the frontrunners, that claimed a leading role up from the formal introduction of REACH - June 2007. “REACH is one of the key issues in our business. We are in the business of chemicals and given our ambition – to become the preferred petrochemical company in Europe – we need to take on a leading role regarding the REACH regulation and implementation,” says SABIC’s project director Sustain Marco van der Sanden. “In this phase of the process we cannot afford to miss out any chemical that we might be selling out. ”
Within the industry REACH has been considered to be a complex and moreover expensive process, SABIC however embraced the legislation and its opportunities. Marco van der Sanden clarifies:“REACH is an expensive exercise but will contribute to an ultimately better control over chemical substances. The Aromatics business and in particular the heavy aromatics are complex in the context of REACH, because there are many different cuts and names for very similar chemicals, REACH will drive this towards a more harmonised data base”.
SABIC has used its energetic embrace of its REACH-related responsibilities as an opportunity to position itself within the industry and beyond. “Because REACH is a common EU effort, you come into contact with the full value chain – suppliers, co-producers, distributors and customers – as well as with authorities, policy-makers, NGOs and trade associations,” says SABIC REACH program manager Harrie Camps. “It gives us the chance to demonstrate what SABIC does and what its values are.” SABIC’s actions regarding REACH leave little doubt that the company is serious about the safety and health of people and cares for the environment.
