It appears that the automobile, semiconductor, and battery industries, which have a high proportion of exports to the EU, will need to prepare for the European Union's (EU) review of restrictions on the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Minister Lee Chang-yang) and the International Environmental Regulation Enterprise Support Center published a trend report on the 11th containing the main contents of the 'Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Usage Regulation Proposal Report' published by the European Union (EU).

It contains information on the method of promoting regulations on the use of perfluorinated compounds, scope of application, promotion procedures and schedule, and impact on domestic industries.

Perfluorinated compounds are organic chemicals that combine carbon and fluorine. They are heat-resistant and have properties that block water and oil, and are used in many fields throughout the industry. However, they are not easily decomposed, so they have high residual and accumulation properties, are widely found in the human body and the environment, and are also harmful.

Five countries - the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway - have proposed a blanket ban on the use of perfluorinated compounds to the European Chemicals Agency, citing three years of research that found they exceed the high-persistence standards set by the European Union's Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).

The European Chemicals Agency published two reports in February and March this year to review these proposals and began collecting comments until the end of September. The plan is to decide on the evaluation opinion next year, adopt it by the European Commission in 2025, and apply the usage restriction measures as early as 2026.

The report presented two restriction options if restrictions were implemented.

The first is to completely ban its use without exception after an 18-month transition period following implementation.

Second, there will be an 18-month transition period after enforcement, but depending on the purpose, exceptional use will be permitted for 5 years (such as industrial machinery for which alternatives are under development or for which development will take time) or 12 years (such as implantable medical devices such as pacemakers for which there are no alternatives or for which development will take a long time), and then a complete ban will be enforced.

Given that there are often no substitutes for perfluorinated compounds for their intended use, the report suggests the second option as a suitable alternative, taking into account the impact of a sudden ban.

The domestic industry uses a lot of perfluorinated compounds, so it is necessary to closely monitor regulatory trends in the European Union.

When manufacturing automobiles and their components such as batteries and electronic components, perfluorinated compounds are used as raw materials or coating agents to meet performance requirements such as safety, reliability, flame retardancy, and durability.

It is also used as a coolant or cleaning agent in the etching and chemical deposition processes when making semiconductors. In the semiconductor etching process, it is used as a coolant for heat removal, and in the chemical deposition process, it is used as a cleaning agent. In semiconductor equipment, it is used as equipment components and lubricants.

In order to prevent future industrial chaos, the public and private sectors must cooperate in advance to find countermeasures. To this end, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will hold business meetings and trend seminars. We plan to hold an industry meeting early next month to understand the current status of responses and difficulties by industry, and as a follow-up measure, we will hold a seminar on the topic of ‘New Trends in Regulation of Perfluorinated Chemicals in the European Union’ to actively disseminate related regulatory trends to companies. We will also provide guidance so that our industry can submit stakeholder opinions to the European Union.