The most important step in hazardous chemical compliance in China is to determine whether chemicals are hazardous or whether they are listed in the Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals (hereinafter referred to as the Catalog). Enterprises must obtain an operation permit or license of hazardous chemicals (in short as HC Operation Permit) if their chemicals are listed in the Catalog. Related enterprises may leave a message on the website of the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) if there are any questions about hazardous chemicals management to get public replies from the Ministry (as shown below).

On December 29, 2022, the General Rules for the Hazardous Chemicals Warehouse Storage (GB 15603-2022) was officially released and will enter into force in China on July 1, 2023. It will repeal and replace GB 16603-1995. GB 15603-2022 is a mandatory national standard. It is of great significance to the safety and management of hazardous chemicals as it provides a universal and basic standard for the storage of hazardous chemicals.

On February 7, 2021, Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment released a notice regarding Strengthening the Supervision on Enterprises in Environmental Management of New Chemicals, in which the Bureau mentioned that it is to enhance the daily environmental management of new chemicals, improve the on-site supervision of environmental enforcement on new chemicals, implement policies and regulations on new chemicals and conduct law enforcement inspections annually.

On December 29, 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), in conjunction with other Ministries, jointly released the List of New Pollutants for Priority Control (2023 Edition). Previously in September 2022, the MEE published the List of New Pollutants for Priority Control (2022 edition) for public comments. The 2023 edition basically remains consistent with the draft released in September. It contains 14 new pollutants, including: 10 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), two toxic and harmful pollutants, one environmental endocrine disruptor, and one antibiotic. The 2023 edition will come into force on March 1, 2023.

The Measures on the Environmental Management Registration of New Chemical Substances (MEE Order 12) were implemented two years ago on January 1, 2021. It has not only optimized and adjusted the registration types and relevant data requirements to lessen the burden on enterprises, but also focused on environmental risk prevention and control for new chemical substances with high environmental risks. In addition, MEE Order 12 has specified the registration standards and improved the approval requirements for new chemical substances in the review and evaluation, stating the specific circumstances for approval, disapproval, reapplication, change, withdrawal, and revocation of registrations.

Shanghai has numerous chemical-related enterprises, including manufacturers and importers. Chemical enterprises and downstream users in the city are the first to be inspected in the annual environmental enforcement inspections. To avoid being punished for violating the Measures for the Environmental Management Registration of New Chemical Substances (MEE Order 12), enterprises need to formulate strategies to properly cope with the law enforcement inspections.

On December 5, 2022, China's Ministry of Ecological Environment (MEE) announced the addition of a batch of six substances that fulfill the requirements of existing substances for inclusion in the IECSC. These six substances were all manufactured, sold, processed in, or imported into China before October 15, 2003. Following its review of the application materials and evidence documents submitted by the applicant, the MEE believed that these substances fulfill the requirements for IECSC supplementation.

On December 5, 2022, China's Ministry of Ecological Environment (MEE) announced the addition of a batch of 36 substances that fulfill the requirements of existing substances into the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances Produced or Imported in China (IECSC). These 36 substances were all registered under the original MEP Order 7 and five years have passed since they reported their first activity.

China’s chemical inventory of existing chemical substances is IECSC, which stands for the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances Produced or Imported in China (IECSC). There are two parts of IECSC, public part and classified/confidential part. Companies can check out the public part by themselves and shall only enquire Authorities for classified/confidential part. If substances are not listed in the public part, companies have to submit a formal enquiry to SCC to check whether a substance is listed in the confidential part. The enquiry costs 3000 RMB.

On November 7, 2022, the Ministry of Emergency Management, in conjunction with other 9 ministries, released the amendments to the Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals 2015. According to the amendments, all diesel fuels, irrespective of their flashpoints, shall be considered as hazardous chemicals and subject to the management of administrative license for hazardous chemicals in China. Previously, only diesel with closed-cup flashpoint <= 60℃ was considered as hazardous chemicals.