Rhein Chemie selling research in parts other players cannot REACH

Cologne, Germany – While EU chemical safety legislation REACH has proved costly, it could eventually pay off for the European chemical industry, according to Dr Anno Borkowsky, head of Rhein Chemie’s additives business.

As a major EU-based chemicals supplier Rhein Chemie has been “very much affected” by REACH, with a long list of products registered, Borkowsky said at a 5 Nov press conference hosted by parent group Lanxess.

But while compliance has been expensive, Borkowsky said REACH could also provide business advantage as many competitors, for example those in Asia, “cannot go along with” all the requirements.

This, he added, is proving especially the case for overseas suppliers of smaller tonnage chemical products, which have to be registered by early 2018 – under phase III of REACH.

“The bigger tonnage products they have registered: but in the smaller tonnages, 1-100 tonnes, a lot of companies don’t have the means to register them,” the Rhein Chemie executive explained to ERJ after the conference at Lanxess HQ in Cologne.

As a result, Rhein Chemie is now selling toxicological studies produced for REACH registration to outside chemicals companies.

“We are careful to select… If it is a competitor product we don’t do anything, but if it is not really competition then we can help,” Borkowsky said.