All electrical and electronic products that are produced, sold or imported in mainland China must comply with the Administrative Measures on the Restricted Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products (China RoHS 2.0).
Compared with the previous version of the regulations, China RoHS 2.0 expanded the product range to which it applies, and added a range of substances considered to be hazardous. These substances are all essential to the operation of electronic and electrical product manufacturers.
China RoHS 2.0 applies to equipment and supporting products with a rated working voltage of no more than 1,500 volts for DC and no more than 1,000 volts for AC. In practice, this means a very wide range of products falls within the scope of the regulation, although items imported for military and national security use are outside the scope of RoHS 2.0.
The PRC Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has published the Management Catalogue for Restricted Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products (Catalogue) and the Exemption List for Use of Restricted Substances in the Management Catalog (Exemption List).
The substances considered hazardous are lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. The Exemption List includes 39 applications that are exempt from the restriction of hazardous substances.
The Exemption List includes 39 exempt applications.
The hazardous substances contained in products that are listed in the Catalogue should comply with the restrictive limits of hazardous substances as provided in the Chinese national standard (GBT 26572-2011 Requirements on concentration limits for certain restricted substances in electrical and electronic products). If they don’t, they are not allowed to be sold in China.
A very wide range of products falls within the scope of the regulation.
Products that are listed in the Exemption List should comply with the specific restrictive limits indicated in the List.
The hazardous substances contained in the electrical and electronic products placed on the market should be marked in either outer packaging or instruction for use according to the requirements of relevant industry standards.
Electrical and electronic products that are not listed in the Catalogue and Exemption List and contain hazardous substances exceeding the limits under relevant national standards, are allowed for sale in China, but must comply with the marking requirements under China RoHS 2.0.
If a product contains a hazardous substance, the packaging must be marked with the Electronic Information Products (EIP) logo and an Environment Protection Use Period (EPUP) logo. The EPUP is the length of time before a hazardous substance is likely to leak from the product, causing harm to health or the environment. This is demonstrated with a number, representing how many years the item is “safe”, inside an orange circle. Items that do not contain any of the six hazardous substances, can be marked with a green EPUP.
