South Korean OSHA: Chemicals in Volumes of 100-1000 Tonnes shall Submit MSDS before January 16, 2023

On January 15, 2019, South Korea released the amendments to the Occupational, Safety and Health Act (known as OSHA). The amended OSHA came into force on January 16, 2020. In accordance with the amended OSHA, chemical substances or mixtures classified as hazards under the Korean GHS are required to submit MSDS to the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor (MoEL) prior to manufacture/import.

MSDS Submission

1. Chemical substances or mixtures meet the classification criteria under Article 104 of OSHA are required to submit MSDS;

2. Subject of submission: Manufacturers/importers in South Korea; Enterprises based outside of South Korea (Enterprises based outside of South Korea cannot submit MSDS directly, yet they can designate a Korea-based Only Representative (OR) to submit MSDS on their behalf.

3. Materials: Chemical products’ classifications, intended uses, MSDS, name, imported/exported volumes (by year), information of manufacturers/importers, and details of all components (LOC is further needed where the MSDS only reflects hazardous ingredients.)

4. Submission website

5. Transitional period of MSDS submission and commercial confidentiality

• For new products manufactured/imported after January 16, 2021 (no transitional period), MSDS shall be submitted to the MoEL prior to manufacture/import.
• For existing products (chemicals circulated in South Korea before January 16, 2021), their transitional periods of MSDS submission range from 1 to 5 years based on manufactured/imported tonnage bands.

6. MSDS submission and application

1) Corresponding codes will be obtained after the MSDS submission:

The code pattern is like AA0000-00-00000000

2) MSDS codes shall be added on the right corner of MSDS.

The MSDS submission deadline for current products in 100-1000t/y shall be on January 16, 2023. CIRS reminds that if your company is exporting chemicals with the GHS hazard category, please pay attention to the changes in Korean laws and regulations, and complete the MSDS submission before the deadline for product compliance. Circumstances such as failure to MSDS submission or false information shall be imposed a fine of no more than 5 million Won.

If you have any needs or questions, please contact us at service@cirs-group.com.

CIRS Group is to host a free webinar on K-OSHA MSDS submission requirements and CBI application rules before January 16, 2023 on November 28, 2022. If you are interested, please do not hesitate to join us!