EUROFER REACH guidance for the European Steel Industry. 09.09 ...

9 Annex VI: Case studies
REACH Guidance for the European Steel Industry
1) On the borderline between preparation/article, developed by UK Steel-EEF
Keith Lloyd is a HS&E Manager at a UK steel processing company that manufacture 'merchant bar'
from steel 'billet', supplied from Spain, Norway and Turkey. Keith has been charged with ensuring the
company's compliance with REACH and has undertaken some background reading on this complex
subject. He understands his obligation as a downstream user for the substances/preparations the
company uses as part of its manufacturing process. However, he remains confused as to whether the
semi-finished (as-cast) steel he uses as a raw material is considered a preparation or article under the
requirements of REACH.
Keith understands that if the large quantity of billet his company is supplied (>30,000 tonnes) is
determined a preparation he would be subject to register the iron and non-ferrous metals within the
steel he 'imports'. He recognises that the obligation to register would only extend to the steel imported
from Turkey, not from within the EU (Spain) and European Economic Area (includes EU 27 and
Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein). If the billet was considered an article then no registration would be
necessary.
Having contacted his national association (UK Steel) Keith discovers that the European Iron and Steel
Federation's (EUROFER) position on this issue is that all semi-finished and final steel products (i.e.
Slab, Bloom, Billet, machined and dressed ingots) are articles, and are therefore exempt from the
requirements of registration. This position, which is supported by the global steel industry in so far it
applies to EU law, was determined from the European Chemical Agency's "Guidance on substances in
Articles", where it can be clearly argued that semi-finished steel products have a special shape,
surface, or design which determine their function to a greater degree than their chemical composition.
This position assumes that semi-finished steel products are re-shaped into finished steel products. No
where in the manufacturing chain is the semi-finished product re-melted (i.e. back to a preparation).
Were this to happen then the article-article chain would be broken and registration obligations may
apply. The position also recognises that only machined and dressed ingots satisfy the definition of an
article. Cast ingots are considered preparations.
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