May 9, 2025
By Lily Hou, regulatory affairs lead, Supply Chain Team, UL Solutions
On March 28, 2025, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration published two updated national standards for transport of dangerous goods: GB 12268-2025 (List of dangerous goods) and GB 6944-2025 (Classification and code of dangerous goods).
Both standards were originally published in 1990 and have been superseded by more recent versions in 2005 and 2012. The newly published 2025 standards will replace the current GB 12268-2012 and GB 6944-2012 on Oct. 1, 2025. GB 12268-2025 and GB 6944-2025 are aligned with the 23rd UN Model Regulations on the transport of dangerous goods, which marks a significant shift from previous versions published in 2012, based on the 16th revised UN Model Regulations. This update brings China's national standards on dangerous goods into closer harmony with the latest UN Model Regulations, helping to facilitate smoother international trade and transport.
GB 12268-2025 contains a comprehensive list of dangerous goods with standardized information on classification, packaging, labelling and transport of dangerous goods for various transport modes. Compared to GB 12268-2012, the structure of the table of dangerous goods has been changed with additions of the following new columns to the table: Packing group, Limited quantities, Excepted quantities, Packing instruction and Special packing provisions for Packaging and IBCs, Instructions and Special provisions for Portable tanks and bulk containers. A total of 69 entries were added to the table including: UN0510-UN0513 and UN3496-UN3560, whereas entry UN1169 was deleted from the table.
The updated standards will have a major impact on industries involved in the classification, packaging, labelling and transportation of hazardous materials. To give companies sufficient time to ensure compliance before the changes are fully enforced, both updated standards are set to take effect on Oct. 1, 2025.
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