All CBAM CN codes
CN 7304Covered by CBAMIron & Steel

CN 7304 under CBAM — Seamless Tubes & Pipes

Tubes, pipes and hollow profiles, seamless, of iron (other than cast iron) or steel

Seamless tubes and pipes — boiler tubes, OCTG, precision and mechanical tubing — pierced and rolled from solid billet rather than welded from strip. Indian seamless makers in Maharashtra and Gujarat export high-value tonnage to EU energy, boiler and engineering buyers, where certification and now CBAM documentation travel together.

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 7304 come from

A seamless mill’s own stages (rotary piercing, reheating, heat treatment) are energy-hungry, and the round billet feeding them is a precursor carrying the steelmaking emissions — BF-BOF or electric route. Defaults assume the conservative end of all of it. The EU default value for this heading is deliberately conservative; the route split and billet chain are exactly what verified actuals put right.

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 7304? Three moves, in order.

  1. 01

    Identify your production route and precursors

    Map billet supply (own melt or purchased — a precursor) and the route behind it, then your own mill stages: piercing, reheating, sizing, heat treatment.

  2. 02

    Collect the data you already have

    Reheating and heat-treatment furnace fuel records, mill electricity bills, billet purchase documentation with supplier emission data, production logs by size range.

  3. 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 7304 and CBAM, in plain English

Is CN 7304 covered by CBAM?

Yes. CN 7304 — seamless tubes, pipes and hollow profiles of steel — 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 spans boiler and heat-exchanger tube, line pipe, OCTG and precision mechanical tubing.

How much CBAM cost does CN 7304 face in 2026?

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.

Seamless vs welded pipe — does CBAM treat them differently?

They sit under different headings — seamless under CN 7304, welded under CN 7305 (large-diameter) and CN 7306 (other) — but all are covered goods. What differs is the emission story: seamless carries more hot-working energy per tonne at the mill, while welded product’s number leans on the flat-steel strip precursor. Either way, the calculation must reflect your actual configuration, which defaults never do.

Our tubes are heat-treated and machined before export. Do those stages count?

Yes — heat treatment fuel and machining electricity at your installation belong inside the embedded-emissions boundary for the finished tube. They are usually modest next to the billet precursor, but a correct filing includes them, and EU verifiers check that the boundary is complete. Our factory-boundary mapping step exists precisely to catch every such source.