EU member states imported electricity worth €1,150.3 million from Serbia in 2025, while three flat-steel product families accounted for more than €500 million, according to 2025 trade statistics. The flows identify areas for businesses to prioritise when preparing for the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), but broad customs codes do not determine which goods fall within its scope.
Electricity value does not measure emissions
Electricity traded from Serbia to EU member states is classified under HS271600 and EU CN 2716 00 00. The imports amounted to 9.84 terawatt-hours, with a reported value of $1.30 billion, equivalent to about €1.15 billion and listed as €1,150.3 million. CBAM measures electricity in megawatt-hours, so its trade value cannot be compared directly with steel or aluminium tonnage to assess embedded emissions.
Product codes narrow the screening task
For flat steel, EU imports from Serbia under HS7208, covering hot-rolled non-alloy flat steel, were valued at $384.23 million, or about €340 million using the annual 2025 euro-dollar average. Coated or plated flat steel under HS7210 was worth approximately €109.3 million, while cold-rolled flat steel under HS7209 was approximately €55.4 million. Together, these three families represented more than €500 million of reported imports, making shipment-level carbon-data work a priority for companies trading them.
Aluminium imports span a range of processed and fabricated products, not only unwrought metal. EU imports included approximately €148.7 million of plate, sheet and strip under HS7606 and €78.6 million of containers and similar packaging under HS7612. Other articles under HS7616 were worth about €62 million, while structures under HS7610 were roughly €44 million and bars and profiles under HS7604 approximately €41.4 million.
These broad HS product-family values can help businesses screen where to start compliance work, but coverage depends on each product’s eight-digit EU Combined Nomenclature classification in Annex I. Some fabricated products in Chapter 73 or Chapter 76 are covered even if they appear less like primary materials. By contrast, Serbia-to-EU ferrous scrap trade under HS7204 was around €22 million in 2025, and aluminium scrap under HS7602 was approximately €35 million; both are outside the initial CBAM product list.
Importers therefore cannot treat broad HS headings as the CBAM tariff list or calculate certificate obligations by multiplying a chapter’s total customs value by an emissions price. Charges depend on embedded emissions, applicable adjustments, carbon prices recognised as already paid in the country of origin and the phase-out of EU free allowances.
Importers need reconciled shipment records
A commercial data extract for CBAM work should combine value with quantities, origin, producing installation, customs procedure, reporting importer and CN8 classification. Companies operating through distributors face particular urgency in reconciling product codes and emissions data. The importer needs to link the reported footprint to the exact goods and quantities entering the EU.
A Serbian steel producer may issue a plant-level report for a coil, but the EU importer needs a defensible allocation of emissions to the relevant product classification and imported quantity. For downstream steel articles, precursor-material requirements and process boundaries add detail; a generic certificate describing a company’s average footprint is not sufficient by itself.
The immediate business priority is a reconciled CN8 register, rather than another sector ranking. It should begin with EU member-state import data where origin is Serbia, restrict 2025 flows to each legally applicable CN8 code and remove goods that are not covered. Until that extraction is complete, broad HS4-family figures remain screening proxies, not a complete audited CN8 CBAM import ledger.
Elevated by CBAM.Clarion Engineer
