Thread Content
(Municipal Market Supervision Special Issuance [2021] No. 26) To the Market Supervision Bureaus (Departments, Commissions) of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps: In order to further strengthen the supervision of cylinder safety, consolidate the achievements of the special rectification efforts regarding liquefied petroleum gas cylinders (hereinafter referred to as gas cylinders), and continue to advance the development of a system for tracking the quality and safety of such cylinders, as well as to pilot safety liability insurance for cylinder filling, in line with the key points for the supervision of special equipment safety and energy conservation in 2021, the relevant matters are hereby notified as follows: I. Further consolidation of the results of the special rectification efforts (1) Filling units must assume their primary responsibility for safety. Gas cylinder filling units shall assume primary responsibility for identifying and addressing potential hazards, and in accordance with the requirements of the \"Notice on Carrying Out Special Rectification Activities for the Safety of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Cylinders and Bottled Liquefied Petroleum Gas\" (Municipal Market Supervision and Special Equipment Administration [2020] No. 108), they must conduct follow-up inspections to ensure that such hazards are properly identified and rectified. For the unresolved safety hazards, a register should be established with corresponding identification numbers; these hazards must be rectified by September 30, 2021, so as to achieve closed-loop management of safety hazard remediation. Gas cylinder filling units should draw lessons from the results of hazard identification and rectification efforts, assign clear responsibilities to their technical supervisors, safety officers, and filling staff, strengthen the management of gas cylinders, and establish long-term mechanisms for such purposes. Strengthen the training and management of the filling inspection personnel in the unit to improve their ability to identify potential hazards associated with gas cylinders. Strictly enforce the inspection system prior to gas cylinder filling, focusing on checking for cylinders that have not been inspected for an extended period, refurbished cylinders, cylinders that should be scrapped, as well as those whose protective covers are connected using threads. Gas cylinders that have exceeded the inspection deadline and were identified during inspections by the filling unit should be sent for inspection promptly ； For refurbished cylinders, cylinders that should be retired, and cylinders with protective covers connected by threads identified during inspections, the filling unit shall immediately eliminate their functionality either on its own or by sending them to a cylinder inspection agency, and shall report to the authority responsible for registering cylinder use in order to carry out the relevant cancellation procedures. Filling units are strictly prohibited from purchasing, filling, or refurbishing gas cylinders as well as cylinders that require reporting for disposal. Gas filling units that purchase gas cylinders starting from June 1, 2021, shall, in accordance with the \"Technical Regulations for Safety of Gas Cylinders\" (TSG 23—2021, hereinafter referred to as the \"Cylinder Regulations\"), require the manufacturer to emboss the mark of the filling unit on the cylinder head. Cylinders without such an embossed mark shall not be eligible for registration for use or for filling. The filling unit may determine on its own the text and graphic design for its own logo, and inform the local market supervision authority responsible for registration procedures; it may also apply free of charge on the website of the gas cylinder industry organization to have its logo made public. (II) Market supervision authorities strengthen supervision and inspection. Provincial market supervision departments shall make overall arrangements for the follow-up inspections of the work related to identifying and rectifying hazards in gas cylinders, summarize the progress of this work on a monthly basis, and strengthen supervision and inspection in those areas where progress in addressing such hazards is slow. Market supervision authorities in various regions should strengthen supervision and inspection of gas cylinder manufacturing, filling units, and testing institutions. They should exert greater pressure on those filling units that have yet to address their safety hazards, and promptly investigate and deal with any illegal or irregular activities. For gas cylinders manufactured on or after June 1, 2021, if the filling unit’s mark is not embossed on the cylinder head, the market supervision authorities will refuse to process the registration for their use. II. Continuously improve the intrinsic safety level of gas cylinders (1) Gradually advance the construction of a quality and safety traceability system for gas cylinders. Market supervision departments across the country should, in accordance with relevant requirements such as the \"Rules for Licensing Special Equipment Production and Filling Units\" (TSG 07—2019) and the \"Notice from the General Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation on Accelerating the Development of a National Tracking System for the Quality and Safety of Gas Cylinders\" (Shijian Tese [2019] No. 69), strengthen supervision and inspection of the construction of information platforms for tracking the quality of products manufactured by gas cylinder producers. They should also urge these manufacturers to properly establish and maintain websites for tracking the quality of their gas cylinder products. Manufacturers of vehicle gas cylinders, hydrogen gas cylinders, and nitrous oxide (laughing gas, nitrous oxide) cylinders must complete the development of websites for tracking the manufacturing quality of such cylinders by December 31, 2021, and enable online access to information regarding cylinder product quality through communication devices such as mobile phones. Filling units for various types of gas cylinders must complete the establishment of a filling tracking information platform by December 31, 2022. As of the date of issuance of this notice, gas cylinder manufacturing units that have yet to complete the development of a website for tracking the quality information of their gas cylinders shall have their supervision and inspection activities related to such cylinders suspended by the relevant inspection agencies, which must also report the situation to the local market regulation authorities without delay. When assigning traceability information labels to gas cylinders, for vehicle-mounted coiled gas cylinders, three QR code labels are wrapped around the cylinder body using transparent fiber at intervals of 120° around it; for other vehicle-mounted gas cylinders, hydrogen gas cylinders, and nitrous oxide gas cylinders, electronic identification labels are installed on the neck ring (guard or label) in a secure and reliable manner, such as by welding the QR codes in place or by creating the code patterns through hollowing out the surface. For gas cylinders manufactured on or after January 1, 2021, that do not have permanent electronic identification tags, or those that do have such tags but it is not possible to use mobile phones or other communication devices to retrieve information regarding the quality of these cylinders online, the market supervision authorities should require the manufacturers to initiate a recall, and the manufacturers must then install electronic identification tags as required. (II) Accelerate the promotion of safety liability insurance for gas cylinder filling. To further leverage the role of insurance covering safety responsibilities for cylinder filling in improving the intrinsic safety level of cylinders, to expand the coverage of such insurance, to strengthen social assistance functions, and to standardize the scope of insurance claims as well as related responsibilities and obligations, the State Administration for Market Regulation has guided industry associations in formulating relevant group standards. Pilot programs for this type of insurance have been launched in Changzhou City in Jiangsu Province, Suzhou City in Jiangsu Province, Jinhua City in Zhejiang Province, and Foshan City in Guangdong Province. Market supervision authorities in various regions can carry out promotion based on the outcomes of the pilot programs and local actual needs. (III) Severely crack down on illegal and irregular activities such as the refurbishment of \"black gas cylinders\". Market supervision departments across the country should, based on reports from the public, carry out intensified inspections on the production and sale of refurbished \"black gas cylinders\" (referring to scrapped gas cylinders or those of unknown origin; the same hereafter) through both open and covert investigations as well as by coordinating with the news media to get involved. Those engaged in illegal activities such as the refurbishment and sale of \"black gas cylinders\" will be resolutely cracked down on and banned in accordance with the law, and the refurbished \"black gas cylinders\" that make their way into the market will be seized and confiscated according to the law ； Those suspected of violating laws or committing crimes shall be handed over to the public security authorities for handling. (IV) Strictly implement the regulations regarding the filling of cylinders for export. In accordance with the relevant requirements of the Cylinder Regulations, filling units are only allowed to fill cylinders that have been registered for use by their own unit, as well as other cylinders for which the registration authority has given permission for filling. Cylinder filling units must ensure that the cylinders they fill meet the requirements regarding cylinder filling as stipulated in China’s safety technical specifications and relevant standards. For helium cylinders that are not refilled for export, as well as small-volume nitrous oxide cylinders, the filling unit shall not carry out refilling without the consent of the authority responsible for regulating the use of special equipment in the location where the filling unit is situated, and without such refilling being placed under customs supervision. III. Relevant Requirements: Market supervision departments in various regions should attach great importance to this matter, strengthen organizational leadership, increase publicity efforts, and develop practical implementation plans based on local conditions. They must complete a review of the work carried out to identify and address potential risks by September 30, 2021. The market supervision departments of various cities are responsible for compiling information on the basic circumstances of gas cylinder filling units (see Attachment 1) and submitting it to the provincial market supervision departments. The provincial market supervision departments are responsible for compiling information on gas cylinder filling units and inspection agencies (see Annex 2), and shall submit the compiled version of Annex 2 to the State Administration for Market Regulation by October 15, 2021. Provincial market supervision departments are requested to submit to the State Administration for Market Regulation, by December 10, 2021, information on the progress of recalling cylinder products and installing permanent electronic identification tags within the specified time frame, as well as details on the promotion of insurance covering safety responsibilities related to cylinder filling. If you encounter any problems at work, please contact the Special Equipment Bureau of the General Administration in a timely manner. Contact: Chang Yanyan 010-82262239 Fax: 010-82260186 Email: changyanyan@samr.gov.cn