CN 7308Covered by CBAMIron & Steel

CN 7308 under CBAM — Steel Structures & Parts

Structures and parts of structures, of iron or steel (bridges, towers, columns, roofs, doors, windows)

Fabricated steel structures — transmission towers, pre-engineered buildings, bridge sections, columns, gratings and prepared structural parts. Indian fabricators, from tower majors to PEB exporters, ship substantial tonnage to EU infrastructure and construction projects under this heading.

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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 7308 come from

Fabrication (cutting, welding, galvanising) adds a modest layer on top of the rolled sections, plate and hollow sections consumed — all precursors carrying the steelmaking emissions of their mills. Defaults assume the conservative case across every input. The EU default value for this heading is deliberately conservative; because a structure aggregates many tonnes of steel input, the defaults-vs-actuals gap scales with the whole bill of materials.

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 7308? Three moves, in order.

01
Identify your production route and precursors
Build the bill-of-materials view: which sections, plates and tubes go in, from which mills — each input is a precursor needing supplier emission data. Then bound your own fabrication and galvanising stages.
02
Collect the data you already have
Steel purchase records with mill traceability across the BOM, fabrication-shop electricity, welding consumables, galvanising fuel logs, project-wise despatch weights.
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 7308 and CBAM, in plain English

Is CN 7308 covered by CBAM?

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Yes. CN 7308 — steel structures and prepared parts of structures — 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. Towers, PEB components, bridge parts and prepared structural steelwork import under this heading.

How much CBAM cost does CN 7308 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.

A structure contains steel from five different mills. How is the CBAM number built?

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By attribution: each precursor input’s embedded emissions (from its mill’s verified data, or defaults where unavailable) are rolled up across the bill of materials, plus your fabrication stage’s own energy. Fabricators’ existing material traceability — heat numbers on test certificates — provides the backbone. We turn that paperwork into the roll-up so the filing matches what was actually built.

Do galvanised towers face anything extra under CBAM?

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Galvanising is counted as a processing stage within your boundary — its furnace fuel and electricity enter the number — but there is no separate “galvanising surcharge”. The zinc itself is not a CBAM-covered good. The dominant term remains the steel inputs, which is why supplier data across your BOM is where the money is.

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