On April 28, 2017, The Science and Technology Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China began to openly solicit the opinion of the public about six projects that are planned to be upgraded to mandatory national standard, which includes the Requirements for Prohibited Substances on Automobiles, and the comment collection will come to an end on May 28, 2017.

The mandatory national standard, Requirements for Prohibited Substances on Automobiles, which is applying for approval, is intended to be amended on the basis of the existing recommended national standard Requirements for Prohibited Substances on Automobiles (GB/T 30512-2014), and to be upgraded to a mandatory national standard after the amendment. This project is in the charge of the Equipment Industry Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, and supervised by National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization, expecting to be completed in 2020. Besides, organizations such as Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and China Automotive Technology & Research Center are the main unit in drafting this standard.

The current Requirements for Prohibited Substances (GB/T 30512-2014) stipulates the forbidden substances of the entire vehicles and their components that are used in China, aiming at banning domestic automobile manufacturer and import agent from using lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and poly brominated diphenyl ethers in developing, manufacturing, importing and selling sections of automotive products.

4 Scope of prohibited substances

4.1 Scope of prohibited substances

The prohibited substances required in this standard refer in particular to the following six substances:

a) Lead or its compounds;

b) mercury or its compounds;

c) cadmium or its compounds;

d) hexavalent chromium;

e) polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs);

f) poly brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

4.2 Content limitations of prohibited substances

Except the automotive components and materials with a time-limited exemption, the mass percentages of lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and poly brominated diphenyl ethers in every homogeneous material of the entire vehicles and their components should not exceed 0.1%, and the mass percentage of cadmium should be below 0.01%.

In view of the current domestic level of economic development and the productive level, technical capacity and present conditions of products of automobile industry, this amendment is likely to make certain modification and adjustment to aspects like the scope of prohibited substances, content limitations, exemption and the time limitation. Furthermore, upgrading the recommended standard to a mandatory standard means importers and manufacturers will be confronted with much stricter requirements. C&K Testing informs relevant automobile manufacturing corporations to pay close attention to the progress of this amendment, and enhance the communication with the companies up and down the supply chain and prepare to make immediate response.