CN 7210Covered by CBAMIron & Steel

CN 7210 under CBAM — Coated & Galvanised Coils

Flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel, width ≥ 600 mm, clad, plated or coated

Galvanised (GI), galvalume (GL), tinplate and colour-coated coil — the coated flat steel that goes into roofing, appliances, packaging and construction across Europe. India’s coating lines in Maharashtra, Gujarat and the eastern belt export significant volumes under this heading, often built on HR/CR substrate from the integrated mills.

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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 7210 come from

Coated coil sits at the end of a chain — BF-BOF steelmaking, hot rolling, cold rolling, then coating — and each upstream stage is a precursor whose emissions accumulate into the final CN 7210 figure. 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 7210? Three moves, in order.

01
Identify your production route and precursors
Map the full substrate chain: which stages happen in your installation and which arrive as purchased HR or CR coil. Every purchased stage is a precursor needing supplier emission data.
02
Collect the data you already have
Coating-line gas and electricity records, zinc/coating consumption, production logs, plus emissions documentation for the substrate coil — the deepest data requirement in flat steel, and exactly what our supplier-chase process exists for.
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 7210 and CBAM, in plain English

Is CN 7210 covered by CBAM?

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Yes. CN 7210 — coated, plated or clad flat-rolled steel 600 mm or wider, including galvanised and colour-coated coil — 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. The coating stage does not exempt the product — it adds a stage on top of fully-covered steel substrate.

How much CBAM cost does CN 7210 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.

Does the zinc coating itself change the CBAM calculation?

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The dominant number remains the embedded emissions of the steel substrate — the coating line adds its own fuel and electricity use, which are counted, but the BF-BOF steelmaking upstream is what drives the total. This is why a coated-coil exporter’s CBAM outcome depends mostly on whether verified actuals exist for the substrate, not on the coating chemistry.

We buy CR coil and only coat it. Can we file actuals at all?

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Yes — and you should. You file your own coating-stage actuals, and you attach precursor emission data from your coil supplier. If the supplier will not cooperate, defaults apply to the precursor portion only, so your own verified stage still helps. CarbonSettle chases suppliers in their own language until every precursor line is closed.

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