The number of REACH pre-registrations stood at 205,710 by the end of the summer, according to official figures received from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The total already surpasses the 180,000 pre-registrations publicly predicted by ECHA staff before the start of the process. The majority of pre-registrations - nearly 70% - were included in 1,598 successful bulk pre-registration dossiers submitted by 1 September. One company alone is reported to have submitted over 100,000 pre-registrations through the bulk submission process. But according to the Agency, around some 193 – 11 per cent – of bulk submission dossiers have had to be rejected due to irregularities in the format used or incomplete information provided. The figures suggest that companies have gained confidence in using ECHA's bulk submission process since it was made available on 22 July. However, leaving aside the 100,000 submissions from one firm, a rough calculation suggests that the average number of pre-registrations made per bulk submission remains low at around 28. The REACH-IT system is able to accept up to 500 pre-registrations in each bulk transaction. The European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) and the oil industry body CONCAWE made available their free, jointly developed, bulk submission tool on 4 August. This enables companies to place data in an Excel srpeadsheet with an in-built macro to convert this into the necessary XML format for submission to REACH-IT. Trade associations for chemical manufacturers and distributors have each commented recently that their members have reported few problems attributable to REACH-IT itself, although personnel in many firms have needed help in getting used to the process of online submission of information.
Other statistics: ·7,586 companies have created accounts in ECHA’s REACH-IT portal in preparation for pre-registration ·Over 350 only representatives have signed up ·337 product and process oriented research and development (PPORD) notifications have been received ·213 inquiries have been made ·71 registrations have been submitted, including 15 full registration dossiers, and files for 27 on-site intermediates and 29 transported intermediates.
Contractors are said to be working on a new release version of REACH-IT, which will bring several improvements to the system and is hoped to end the need for manual submission of data. ECHA expects to receive a test version on 8 September and, barring problems, hopes to have the new release in place by the end of the month. However,the deadline is recognised as being very challenging.