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Response to Enquiries and Questionnaires Regarding REACH

The declaration of Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) compliance applies to products supplied by The Metal Centre.

The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union in 2021, since when UK REACH and EU REACH have operated independently of each other. Businesses based in the Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) must comply with UK REACH, while businesses in Europe (including Northern Ireland) must comply with EU REACH. UK importers must notify the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) of their intention to continue importing substances.

Apart from the products set out in the declaration below, our standard semi-finished products in aluminium, aluminium alloys, stainless steel and copper alloys such as sheet, plate, tube, bar and extrusions, are classed as ‘articles’ but do not exceed the SVHC thresholds and therefore do not need to be registered.

A copy of the production diagrams for aluminium and stainless steel is available on request, to help clarify the definitions of ‘substances’, ‘preparations’ and ‘articles’.

Due diligence has been carried out on our current supplier base to establish that ‘substances’ and ‘preparations’ which require registration under REACH have been registered or confirm the absence of such chemicals. For this reason, as far as reasonably practicable, we can confirm that majority of our standard semi-finished products detailed above, don’t contain any of the chemicals listed in the current Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) 17th January 2023 with the exception of the declaration below:

We declare that some Aluminium & Copper/Brass articles supplied have the chemical substances, indicated in Attachment XIV of the Reach Regulation, present in quantities above 0.1% as follows:

Substance: Lead
CAS/EINICS: CAS 7439-92-1 / EINICS 231-100-4
Date of inclusion: 27-06-2018
Hazard: Toxic for reproduction Cat. 1A
H360FD - May damage fertility. May damage the unborn child
H362 - May cause harm to breast-fed children

Annex 14 of UK REACH is a copy of Annex XIV of EU REACH as it stood at the end of the transition period and the same latest application dates and sunset dates apply, except for entries 44 to 54 whose latest application dates are 30 June 2022 (Article 127GA (7)&(8)).

You may purchase other products or metal types from us outside our normal stock range. In these circumstances, confirmation from the producer would be required that they do not contain any of the listed ‘Substances of Very High Concern'.

We trust that this information clarifies our position regarding compliance under the REACH Regulations. If you have any questions or want to check any specific product, please contact us.

The Metal Centre has taken and continues to take reasonable steps to obtain representative and accurate information, but has not conducted destructive testing or chemical analysis on incoming materials and chemicals. In no event shall The Metal Centre’s liability to any customer arising in relation to the declarations contained herein exceed the total purchase price of the products sold to that customer.

This Policy will be reviewed as required. The Metal Centre will continue to monitor all manufacturing processes and product changes to the REACH legislation and SVCH Candidate List.