Saudi Arabia: The RoHS regulation officially postponed

 

The Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) decided to postpone the implementation of the Technical Regulation for the restriction of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic devices and equipment.

It was originally scheduled to take effect on 1 May 2022 but has been postponed and will now be implemented gradually for different product categories starting from 4 July 2022, as shown below:

Product category	Mandatory date for product category in scope of technical regulation
1A- Small home appliances	04/07/2022
1B- Large home appliances	02/10/2022
2- Telecommunication & Information Technology Equipment	31/12/2022
3- lighting equipment	31/03/2023
4- Electrical and electronic equipment and tools	29/06/2023
5- Toys, recreation equipment and sports equipment	27/09/2023
6- Monitoring and control tools	26/12/2023

 

These six categories of electronic and electric equipment (EEE) under the Saudi Arabian RoHS regulation must meet relevant requirements before entering the national market. The restricted substances and limits are shown below:

RESTRICTED SUBSTANCE	LIMIT (WT%)
Lead (Pb)	0.1
Mercury (Hg)	0.1
Cadmium (Cd)	0.01
Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI))	0.1
Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)	0.1
Polybrominated biphenyls ethers (PBDE)	0.1

 

The SASO RoHS requires a conformity assessment for the affected products. Any supplier responsible for placing EEE on the Saudi market must obtain a certificate of conformity issued by a notified body approved by SASO.  The procedure is based on the Conformity Assessment Form (Type 1a) as per ISO/IEC 17067. The product must be accompanied by a technical documentation that includes supplier’s (manufacturer/importer) Declaration of Conformity (DoC), a risk assessment document, as well as the necessary warnings, cautions and manuals for the safe and proper use of the product.

The RoHS requirements have been becoming quite widespread worldwide after the European Union first published the Directive 2002/95/EC, superseded in 2011 by the Directive 2011/65/EU on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment.  This has led to a ‘globalization of ’RoHS’.  Many countries, such as China, Korea, Singapore, USA, Turkey, Ukraine, Japan, Eurasian Economic Union followed the EU example and have successively published their own ‘RoHS-like’ regulations. Nevertheless, the RoHS requirements in different countries vary.  The main differences concern the regulated categories of electrical and electronic equipment, restricted substances, exemptions, and conformity assessment methods.  For example, in the EU, the RoHS compliance is a part of the CE conformity assessment system and is based on a manufacturer’s declaration of conformity.