The European Union imported €111.23 billion of merchandise covered by the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in 2025, including an estimated €94.74 billion from non-exempt origins. An extraction of EU merchandise-trade data compiled in October 2026 shows iron and steel and aluminium accounted for most of the trade value, highlighting the scale of foreign materials entering the bloc.
About €16.5 billion came from origins exempt under the regulation. The figures measure trade at the EU border, not the amount of CBAM certificates payable, and do not identify liable importers or verified emissions.
Iron and steel products under the relevant Chapter 72 and 73 customs codes accounted for €60.95 billion, while aluminium imports were valued at €30.34 billion. Electricity imports came to €8.43 billion and fertilisers to €8.33 billion.
Other covered imports included €2.10 billion of agglomerated iron ore and €1.08 billion of cement and clinker. Hydrogen remained marginal in merchandise statistics.
Trade values do not determine CBAM liability
China was the largest external supplier to the EU, with imports valued at €17.09 billion. Türkiye ranked second at €10.83 billion, followed by Britain at €7.28 billion.
CBAM entered its definitive period on 1 January 2026. In this phase, eligible imports carry financial and reporting obligations based on their embedded emissions, with adjustments for the EU free-allocation phase-out and any qualifying carbon price already paid abroad.
The certificate price for 2026 is published quarterly and reached €82.32 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent in the third quarter. It is not a flat tax on customs value: assessing a business’s actual liability requires linking the eight-digit customs code, origin country, producing installation, quantity, emissions methodology, importer and contractual buyer.
Those details can help businesses assess supplier competitiveness and consider whether carbon evidence, alternative materials or changes to purchase contracts could improve margins. Customs records alone do not show how metal moves through representatives, warehouses, service centres, rolling or extrusion plants and component suppliers before reaching vehicle, construction or machinery manufacturers. Imports declared in one member state may also be resold elsewhere in the single market, leaving the wider supply chain unclear. The import scale reflects European industry’s dependence on foreign metals and materials, while making supply-chain information a practical challenge alongside CBAM’s border-pricing measure.
