Swiss speciality chemicals firm Clariant says it has completed Phase 2 of REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals) on 31 May with the registration of 255 different chemical substances. These include 155 dossiers submitted by Clariant as the "lead registrant", amounting to 5.3% of all substances registered for the first time in the EU in this second REACH phase.

Phase 2 involved 66% more chemicals produced in the EU and imported into the EU by Clariant in comparison to REACH 1. During the first phase, completed back in November 2010, the speciality chemicals firm recorded a total of 152 chemicals with a quantity of more than 1,000 tonnes/year. Now Clariant has registered chemical substances that are produced in or imported to the countries of the European Union with volumes of between 100 and 1,000 tonnes/year.

With its broad product portfolio, Clariant is one of the "lead registrants" at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). Just under 10% of all substances registered across the EU are on the registration list of the Swiss company. Given the size of the business units, the majority of the registered substances came from Care Chemicals (Business Unit Industrial and Consumer Care) as well as Plastics and Coatings (Business Unit Pigments).

Alongside the challenges of evaluating and authorising, in the third phase of REACH that is currently underway all of the remaining chemical substances of more than 1 tonne/year must be registered by 2018. For Clariant this means yet another significant increase in the size of the dossier to be submitted.