News Updates
Calling All Suppliers:
New NASF Supplier Committee Launched for 2012
The NASF supplier community is expanding opportunities for engagement this year. The industry took its first step in January. More than 30 representatives from chemical and equipment companies met in Chicago to launch a new NASF committee focused on supplier concerns for the surface finishing industry.
The full-day agenda and discussion covered market, technology and regulatory topics for large and small supplier companies. NASF President Tony Revier (Uyemura) kicked off the meeting, noting that the association spent 2011 aggressively rebuilding, retooling its membership structure and charting a strategic course for the future.
“The supplier community faces some unique issues, and we’re excited to expand the association’s programs this year to address them,” Revier says.
Industry Statistics, New Trends and Expanded Promotion
The session covered priorities for various supplier segments, and kicked off with a discussion on the latest NASF market statistics led by supplier survey manager Dave Lucas, Blair Vandivier (Asterion), Erik Weyls (Coventya) and Terry Copeland (Enthone). Attendees agreed the new analysis was extremely valuable and should be continued.
Invited representatives from DuPont—Dr. Kai Schubert and Dr. Allison Yake—along with U.S. EPA officials and NASF Government and Industry Affairs, discussed the outlook for fume suppressants and pending restrictions on perfluorinated chemicals. Also spotlighted was NASF’s expanded industry promotions focus for the finishing industry, most recently through the association’s Surface Technology Initiative.
This year NASF is deepening its involvement in student design competitions through the Bright Design Challenge with the Detroit-based College for Creative Studies and the West Coast Bright Design Challenge with the Pasadena-based Art Center College of Design.
A Changing Regulatory Landscape
The session also covered new topics for suppliers from the alphabet soup of federal agencies, including NASF Government and Industry Affairs’ update on new measures affecting suppliers from the SEC, DEA, DOT, EPA and OSHA.
Lynn Bergeson, a nationally recognized expert on chemicals policies, forecast the North American impacts to industry MSDS requirements from OSHA’s soon-to-be finalized Globally Harmonized System (GHS), new European REACH restrictions on chromium and cobalt announced in December 2011, and new U.S. EPA chemical data reporting requirements starting in February 2012.
Attendees agreed that launching a new supplier committee would be highly beneficial, and elected Enthone’s Brian DeWald to chair the committee in 2012. Stay tuned for information on future meetings and programs.
EPA sends Chromium Air Emissions Rule to White House
NASF will be meeting with senior EPA officials and White House staff to address persistent industry concerns over the agency’s data and rationale for strict new air emission limits from chromium finishing processes.
The agency in mid-January sent the rule for review by the White House Office of Management and Budget prior to formal issuance of a proposed rule in the coming month. At this stage, NASF has argued that the proposed rule provides essentially no new environmental and health benefits but could impose unnecessary burdens on many surface finishing operations.
Once EPA publishes the proposed rule, NASF and the industry will have the opportunity to address the agency’s new limits during a public comment period. For questions or additional information, please contact jeff Hannapel at jhannapel@thepoicygroup.com.
European REACH Targets Chromium and Cobalt
The European Union REACH regime continues to expand the number of chemicals classified as Carcinogenic, Mutagenic or Reproductive toxics (CMR) and to put forward more of them as candidates for Authorization. The new list (see below) of those now going forward to the European Commission includes chromic acid, most of the chromates used for chromate conversion and chromated primers, and most of the cobalt salts used for cobalt alloy electroplating.
Since REACH covers chemicals, not emissions, this affects both functional and hexavalent decorative chrome equally, but not trivalent plating. This is the final step for inclusion in Annex XIV, after which they will not be able to be used in Europe without specific Authorization, or explicit permission, from authorities.
What does this mean for surface finishers, and when?
Chemicals enter into Annex XIV, about Feb 2013 (depending on a European Parliament vote).
1) Authorization application dates:
21 months later for chromates, 24 months for Co
salts. After these dates no further applications
for authorization can be made.
Any European manufacturer or chemical supplier to Europe must ensure that all of their uses of these chemicals are included in an authorization application by this date. Applications require a large and expensive dossier. A consortium has been set up to pursue authorization for CrO3 for metal finishing, and the NASF has been in contact with European finishing organizations.
2) Sunset dates:
18 months after Application
dates. After these dates these chemicals cannot be used
in Europe without authorization.
The NASF Washington Forum will feature a panel discussion of top experts on the impact of REACH for the U.S. and North American finishing community, and a second NASF webinar on REACH education for U.S. suppliers and finishers is pending.
In the meantime, information on new REACH developments is available for NASF members by contacting Jeff Hannapel at jhannapel@thepolicygroup.com.
Newly Listed Chemicals/Metals under REACH
- Ammonium dichromate
- Chromic acid, Oligomers of chromic acid and dichromic acid, dichromic acid
- Chromium trioxide
- Cobalt dichloride
- Cobalt(II) carbonate
- Cobalt(II) diacetate
- Cobalt(II) dinitrate
- Cobalt(II) sulphate
- Potassium chromate
- Potassium dichromate
- Sodium chromate
- Sodium dichromate
- Trichloroethylene
Manufacturers Alliance Report Says “Radical” Changes to Trade Patterns Threaten U.S.
NASF Will Hold International Panel at SUR/FIN Las Vegas, June 11, 2012
U.S. manufacturing has made a modest comeback from the Great Recession, and key U.S. industrial sectors are demanding more surface engineering and finishing. NASF is planning another international panel on finishing for SUR/FIN 2012 to review where U.S. and global surface coatings markets, technologies and regulations are headed, in response to last year’s tremendous response and attendance at SUR/FIN Chicago.
As discussions on global manufacturing kick off this year, the Manufacturers Alliance just issued a new report arguing that a "radical" global economic transformation has taken place over the past decade, with China rising quickly and substantially beyond the United States to become the world's largest exporter of manufactured goods. China now accounts for 20 percent of global exports of manufactured goods ($1,476 billion), up from only 7 percent ($220 billion) in 2000. Over the same period, the U.S. share fell to 13 percent.
The fundamental restructuring of exports away from the United States "is having a decisive impact on the functioning of the international economic system," says study author Ernest Preeg. Trade surpluses by China and other countries have risen significantly. China’s trade surplus increased by an order of magnitude over the decade, from $50 billion to $582 billion, while the EU's surplus was up by more than 400 percent, from $51 billion to $255 billion. South Korea's surplus rose by 202 percent, from $57 billion to $172 billion; Japan's was up by 41 percent from $237 billion to $333 billion.
Meanwhile, the United States was headed in the opposite direction, with its trade deficit increasing 33 percent, from $319 billion in 2000 to $425 billion in 2010.
"A particularly disturbing dimension for the manufacturing sector was the growth of trade imbalances for the five largest exporters, who account for 67 percent of global exports," according to the analysis. "In 2010, surpluses of $582 billion by China, $333 billion by Japan, $255 billion by the EU, and $172 billion by South Korea, stood in striking contrast to the $425 billion U.S. deficit.”
Preeg says the international trade system is no longer working properly, and the U.S. needs to take more decisive action.
