Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent global chemical supervision and continuous improvement of China’s ecological compliance system, new chemical substance filing has become a core access threshold for water treatment agent enterprises to conduct legal production, market circulation and cross-border trade. Recently, relying on professional compliance consulting capabilities, mature filing declaration system and full-process implementation services, COMPLIANCEMEN has successfully assisted a well-known domestic water treatment agent enterprise in completing the filing of new chemical substances in China for new water treatment additives. It completely solves the enterprise’s compliance access problems for new products, breaks dual barriers for domestic compliant operation and overseas trade expansion, and safeguards the marketization and international layout of the enterprise’s new products.

Ⅰ. Introduction to China’s New Chemical Substance Registration & Filing Regulations and Compliance Advantages

China’s environmental management filing system for new chemical substances is mainly based on the Measures for the Environmental Administration Registration of New Chemical Substances (Order No.12 of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment) and the chemical pollution risk control provisions in the Eco-Environmental Code of the People’s Republic of China. It is a mandatory source supervision system for new chemical substances not included in the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances of China (IECSC), covering the entire industrial chain of production, import, processing and utilization. The system divides the supervision of new chemical substances into three categories: conventional registration, simplified registration and filing. The filing mode is applicable to new chemical substances with low tonnage and low environmental risks, serving as an efficient compliance path suitable for the iteration of new water treatment agent products.

For water treatment agent enterprises, completing the filing of new chemical substances has multiple core compliance advantages. First, legal operation guarantee, it completely avoids compliance risks such as administrative penalties, product seizure and market ban caused by unfiled production, sales and import, realizing compliant launch and legal circulation of new products. Second, accurate risk control, it improves the product safety control system through environmental risk assessment, toxicological testing and safety parameter verification in the filing process, reducing hidden environmental and production safety hazards from the source. Third, policy dividend adaptation, it conforms to China’s dual-carbon goals and upgraded water pollution control policies, aligning with the development orientation of green chemical industry and enabling enterprises to enjoy industry compliance support policies. Fourth, supervision credit improvement, complete filing compliance records can enhance enterprises’ environmental credit ratings, help enterprises participate in bidding for municipal and large-scale industrial projects, and strengthen core competitiveness in the domestic market.

Ⅱ. Water Treatment Agent Industry Analysis and International Trade Trend Analysis

With the intensification of global water scarcity, upgrading of industrial wastewater discharge standards and accelerated global urbanization, the water treatment agent industry has become a core growth track of the global environmental protection industry with continuous and steady expansion of market scale. In 2025, the global water treatment agent market scale exceeded 42 billion US dollars, and is expected to approach 60 billion US dollars by 2030 with an average annual compound growth rate of over 4.5%. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than 46% of the global market share. As the world’s largest production and consumption market for water treatment agents, China ranks first in the global market with a contribution rate of over 35%. The current industry presents a development trend of greenization, refinement and high-endization. New phosphorus-free, biodegradable, low-toxic and high-efficiency water treatment agents are gradually replacing traditional high-pollution products and becoming the mainstream of industry iteration.

In terms of international trade, China’s water treatment agent export performance continues to improve. In 2024, the domestic export volume of water treatment agents reached 4.6 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%. The core export markets cover Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and countries along the Belt and Road, with continuous release of overseas market demand. Meanwhile, chemical access rules in countries worldwide continue to tighten. EU REACH Regulation, US TSCA Act and chemical supervision regulations of Southeast Asian countries have formed multiple trade barriers. Compliance qualifications have become the core competitiveness of Chinese water treatment agent products for overseas expansion. At present, most small and medium-sized enterprises in the industry face problems such as inability to mass-produce new products, restricted exports and lost orders due to delayed new product filing and imperfect compliance systems. In contrast, enterprises with complete new chemical substance filing qualifications can accurately adapt to dual domestic and foreign supervision standards and seize market share in the global high-end water treatment agent market.

Ⅲ.Positive Impacts of Compliance Filing on Enterprise Trade

The completion of new chemical substance filing with the full empowerment of COMPLIANCEMEN has helped the cooperative enterprise comprehensively upgrade its compliance system, completely break operational and trade bottlenecks, and provide all-round empowerment for the enterprise’s domestic and foreign market expansion with remarkable value results.

1. Break domestic compliance barriers and release the potential for mass production and marketization of new products

After the completion of filing, the enterprise’s new water treatment additives have officially obtained qualifications for legal domestic production, sales and circulation, completely avoiding supervision and punishment risks and realizing large-scale mass production and national market layout of new products. Relying on compliance qualifications, the enterprise has successfully entered high-end application scenarios such as municipal sewage treatment, industrial circulating water and oil-gas water treatment, breaking the market limitations of traditional products and greatly improving domestic market share and brand industry influence.

2. Eliminate international trade barriers and expand global overseas channels

At present, overseas purchasers have increasingly strict audits on chemical compliance qualifications, and new chemical substance filing certificates have become an important credible basis for cross-border trade. After completing compliance filing, the enterprise’s products fully meet dual domestic and foreign environmental protection and chemical supervision standards, effectively avoiding trade risks such as blocked overseas customs clearance, unqualified sampling inspection and order termination, and smoothly opening up core overseas market channels such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Meanwhile, complete compliance filing materials can effectively respond to overseas customer qualification verification, customs inspection and third-party testing and audit, greatly improving the transaction rate of overseas orders and trade stability.

3. Build compliance competition barriers and enhance long-term core competitiveness of enterprises

Under the general trend of industry compliance reshuffling, compliance qualifications have become a key advantage for enterprise differentiated competition. The implementation of this filing has helped the enterprise establish a standardized new chemical compliance management system and realize a full-process compliance closed loop of new product R&D, testing, filing, listing and export. Compared with non-compliant peers, the enterprise can quickly respond to domestic and foreign market access requirements, take the lead in undertaking high-end foreign trade orders and large-scale engineering projects, continuously expand market competitive advantages, and lay a solid foundation for the enterprise’s long-term global layout and high-end brand development.

Ⅳ.COMPLIANCEMEN Service Advantages

With years of in-depth cultivation in the chemical compliance service field, COMPLIANCEMEN focuses on industries such as water treatment agents, fine chemicals and new materials, proficient in the full-process business of China’s new chemical substance filing, conventional registration and simplified registration, and deeply adapts to the core characteristics of the industry including rapid new product iteration, high compliance requirements and extensive trade scenarios. Relying on a professional technical team, rich project implementation experience and standardized declaration process, we can provide enterprises with one-stop full-chain services including risk assessment, data compilation, testing docking, declaration submission, progress follow-up and post-compliance operation and maintenance, efficiently solve various chemical compliance problems of enterprises, and help chemical enterprises achieve compliant operation, steady overseas expansion and long-term development.