Supply Chain Reaction

As someone who’s been doing a lot of research on China RoHS lately, I can say that while it’s a significant law, it shouldn’t be as difficult a law to grasp as it is. As Avnet’s Steve Schultz implies in Electronic News’ “China RoHS: Ready or not, it’s here” article this week, these environmental regulations aren’t rocket science. Success is just a matter of getting a handle on the facts, on what’s being required and on how the electronics supply chain will be affected.

One very important fact that is often overlooked is the name of the law. There is no such law as “China RoHS.” The true name is “Management Methods for Controlling Pollution by Electronic Information Products,” but it has instead been dubbed China RoHS as the industry is predominantly viewing this effort by the Ministry of Information Industry as a follow on to EU RoHS. That in itself is a huge fault. While the two focus on the same six hazardous substances, they are separate and differ greatly. Presuming compliance with EU RoHS will mean compliance with China RoHS is a big mistake that could come back to bite those who do.

To help our readers get a better idea of what China RoHS is and what it means, I’m sharing some of my favorite resources on the regulation, which, by the way, sees its first in-force date arrive tomorrow.

AeA translation and scope
When the MII wrote up this law, big surprise, it didn’t do so in English. (here’s the MII’s original posting) Check out the AeA’s translation of China RoHS and, if you haven’t done so already, give it a good, thorough read. AeA also translated the Chinese documents defining the scope of China RoHS and what the MII is considering an “electronic information product” or EIP.

SEMI’s Advocacy page
The trade group presents several China RoHS documents and links to helpful articles on the law. The page also includes information on other environmental initiatives.

ChinaRoHS.com, from Design Chain Associates
Design Chain Associates, a San Francisco-based consultancy that’s been focusing on environmental compliance issues for the last four years, snatched up this URL and has done the electronics supply a service with it. Some highlights from the site include the outlines of how EU RoHS and China RoHS differ and the documents page, listing several clarifying documents on this subject.

RoHS-International Ltd.
 This RoHS consultancy has been operating since 2004 and provides commercial services for RoHS compliance both to businesses and to governments. The site includes a China RoHS blog, explanations of the law and a database of articles on environmental regulations.

Company-specific sites have yet to present much on China RoHS, but here are three worth watching. Avnet, Newark and Digi-Key did a great job of following EU RoHS and, I hope sometime soon, they will do the same for China RoHS.

Avnet
Check out the distributor’s “green” page. There’s not much up here yet about China RoHS, but the page is worth noting.

Digi-Key
I’ve also heard from Digi-Key that more will be coming to its site soon. Meanwhile, check out the Lead-Free Zone, a site it runs with Electronic News’ sister publications EDN and Design News.

What other resources are there for China RoHS? If you have any to share, please do so by posting a comment and I’ll add them to this list.