CN 7208Covered by CBAMIron & Steel

CN 7208 under CBAM — Hot-Rolled Coils & Plates

Flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel, hot-rolled, width ≥ 600 mm, not clad, plated or coated

Hot-rolled (HR) coils, sheets and plates — the workhorse of flat steel and India’s single largest steel export category to the EU. Shipped by the integrated mills (Jamshedpur–Bokaro belt, coastal Odisha and Maharashtra plants) and re-rolled downstream into everything from pipes to auto panels. If you ship HR coil to Antwerp or Rotterdam, CN 7208 is almost certainly on your invoice.

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Covered

CBAM status of this heading

1 Jan 2026

Definitive phase — certificates due

€70–80

per tCO₂ — certificate price tracks EU ETS

up to ~40%

typical cost cut with verified actuals

Emission profile

Where the emissions in CN 7208 come from

HR coil from India overwhelmingly comes off the BF-BOF (blast furnace) route, where coke and coal drive the emission intensity. The EU default value for this heading is deliberately conservative — defaults are set high so that not filing actuals always costs more. Indian BF-BOF actuals typically land around 2.1–2.2 tCO₂/t of crude steel, while the defaults applied to Indian BF-route steel sit far higher, in the 3.5–5.0+ tCO₂/t range shown on our steel lander — a gap your buyer pays for until verified actuals close it.

Why we don’t print a default value here

The EU publishes and updates specific default values per goods category separately — quoting a stale number would mislead you. What never changes: defaults are set deliberately high, and the markup escalates from 10% in 2026 to 30% by 2028 for steel and aluminium (free-allowance phase-out runs to 2034). Use the CBAM calculator for a current, product-specific estimate.

What to do

Exporting under CN 7208? Three moves, in order.

01
Identify your production route and precursors
Establish whether your HR coil comes off BF-BOF, or from purchased slab/hot metal — purchased inputs are precursors whose emissions must be included in your embedded-emissions number.
02
Collect the data you already have
Blast-furnace fuel records, coke and coal invoices, electricity bills, monthly production logs and slab purchase documentation — the CBAM calculation runs off documents your plant already keeps.
03
File verified actuals, not defaults
Have the numbers computed to the EU CBAM methodology and verified, then hand your EU buyer’s Authorised Declarant a filing they can use. Verified actuals typically cut the CBAM cost by up to ~40% versus default values — and the default markup only gets worse, escalating from 10% in 2026 to 30% by 2028 for steel and aluminium.

Free this quarter: We cover your first report (April–June 2026) so an inflated EU default never costs you an order. Continue only if you choose to. Free for the April–June 2026 quarter — start your report by 30 September 2026.

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Frequently asked

CN 7208 and CBAM, in plain English

Is CN 7208 covered by CBAM?

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Yes. CN 7208 — hot-rolled flat products of non-alloy steel 600 mm or wider — is a covered good under the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Any consignment under this heading imported into the EU has carried reporting obligations since the transitional phase (1 October 2023 – 31 December 2025), and since the definitive phase began on 1 January 2026 the EU importer must buy CBAM certificates against its embedded emissions. This is India’s largest EU steel export line, so it is also where EU customs scrutiny of CBAM data is most routine.

How much CBAM cost does CN 7208 face in 2026?

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CBAM certificates track the EU ETS carbon price — roughly €70–80 per tonne of CO₂ in 2026 — so the bill is your embedded emissions multiplied by that price. For Indian BF-route steel products the difference between bases is dramatic: default-basis costs run roughly €250–270 per tonne of product, versus roughly €65–170 per tonne on verified actuals — about €80,000–€180,000 on a single 1,000-tonne consignment. The exact figure depends on your route and product mix, which is why the first step is a proper calculation, not a guess.

My HR coil is rolled from purchased slab. Whose emissions count?

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Both yours and the slab-maker’s. Under CBAM, purchased slab or hot metal is a precursor, and its embedded emissions must be included in the figure filed for your CN 7208 product. If your slab supplier cannot provide installation-level data, the EU applies default values for that precursor — which is why we chase precursor suppliers for real numbers as part of the engagement.

Does CN 7208 include coated or cold-rolled coil?

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No. CN 7208 is specifically hot-rolled, uncoated flat product 600 mm or wider. Cold-rolled coil falls under CN 7209 and metallic-coated or painted coil (GI, GL, colour-coated) under CN 7210 — both also CBAM-covered, each carrying the emissions of the HR substrate as a precursor plus your processing stage.

Related CN codes