Positive development for remote inspections to obtain SELO China manufacturer license

On February 26, 2021, the China Special Equipment and Research Institute published that they conducted the first remote inspection for the authority SELO in January.

To renew an existing manufacturer license or to obtain a new license from the authority SELO for pressure vessels, boilers, safety valves and other special equipment, an factory inspection on-site the manufacturer’s production site was stipulated as mandatory.

According to announcement no. 3/2020 of the authority SAMR (State Administration for Market Regulation) all certification and inspection bodies need to work on implementing an alternative to on-site inspections due to the Covid19 pandemic restrictions.

In 2020, to the best of our current knowledge, no factory inspection was carried out outside the P.R. China for the SELO manufacturer's licence. The only way for licence holders to continue to export to China was to apply for a temporary validity extension for their expiring licence. Manufacturers without an existing licence were not granted special permits to import and distribute their products in China.

Now, this successful trial certainly will be not the only case and the next months pending inspections are likely to be scheduled as remote inspection.

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