Neodymium magnets under the REACH Regulation
The SVHC Candidate List, the 0.1% by weight threshold and the document you will receive from us
We start by separating two things that are conflated in almost every enquiry we receive.
REACH concerns the article — the magnet itself and its coating. PPWR concerns the packaging the magnet travels in. These are two separate pieces of legislation, two separate documents and often two different parties issuing them. If you are looking for packaging documentation, the relevant page is PPWR.
This page answers the questions we receive from purchasing and compliance departments: what REACH covers, where the 0.1% threshold comes from and which document we can issue to you.
1. What REACH covers
Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, known as REACH, governs the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals. A neodymium magnet is an article within its meaning (Article 3(3)) — an object whose function is determined mainly by its shape rather than its chemical composition. Three elements matter for articles:
- The SVHC Candidate List — the list of substances of very high concern maintained by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). It is updated twice a year.
- Article 33 — the duty to give the recipient information on safe use where a listed substance exceeds the concentration threshold in the article.
- Annex XVII — restrictions on the placing on the market and use of certain substances.
2. The 0.1% by weight threshold and what follows from it
This is the substance of most enquiries that reach us.
- Where a substance from the Candidate List is present in an article above 0.1% by weight, the supplier of that article must give the industrial recipient information allowing safe use — as a minimum the name of the substance.
- The duty applies on the supplier's own initiative and with no tonnage threshold. It does not have to be requested.
- A consumer may ask and is entitled to an answer free of charge, within 45 days.
- Exceeding the threshold also triggers a separate duty to notify the SCIP database maintained by ECHA. These are two independent obligations — one does not replace the other.
3. What we check in the magnets
A neodymium magnet is sintered NdFeB with a protective coating applied to it. The coating is a separate material, and declarations that do not cover it leave a gap exactly there — which is why we ask about it explicitly.
- Magnet material — the NdFeB alloy, which alongside neodymium, iron and boron contains additions such as praseodymium, dysprosium or terbium, depending on the grade and the required temperature resistance.
- Protective coating — nickel-copper-nickel (Ni-Cu-Ni) as standard, and also zinc, epoxy or gold, depending on the application.
- From our manufacturers we collect written REACH/SVHC declarations referring to the current version of the Candidate List and covering the magnet material and the coating separately.
- We also request the full material composition with percentages by weight. With that data we can check the 0.1% threshold ourselves at every update of the list, instead of waiting for the manufacturer's reply twice a year.
4. Our role and what we issue
Towards a customer in the European Union we are the supplier of the article. This means the duty under Article 33 rests with us — the manufacturer provides the evidence, but the statement carries our signature.
- We issue a supplier's statement for the specific article, referring to the manufacturer's written declaration and to the version of the Candidate List it relates to.
- The manufacturer's declaration is available for inspection on request — it is the basis of our statement.
- Should the composition change, the coating change, or an update of the list affect the content of the statement, we inform our customers in writing.
- We do not send customers the manufacturer's management system certificates in place of an answer about REACH. Those are two different things and confusing them helps no one.
Documents for customers
We issue the Article 33 REACH statement for a specific article on request. Please use our contact form, quoting the order number or the catalogue index — we will confirm which article the enquiry concerns and which document we can issue for it.
We are currently collecting declarations from all manufacturers we source magnets from. As they are completed, the statements will appear here for download.
The information on this page describes the position as at the date of publication and is provided for guidance only. The binding text is that of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006.
PPWR Regulation GPSR Regulation Documents to download