CN 7616Covered by CBAMAluminium

CN 7616 under CBAM — Other Aluminium Articles

Where the emissions in CN 7616 come from

Die-casting and machining add modest energy; the metal — primary ingot or, very commonly in this segment, secondary (recycled) alloy ingot at 0.5–1.5 tCO₂/t versus coal-power primary at 14–18 — is the precursor that sets the number. The EU default value for this heading is deliberately conservative; for India’s largely scrap-fed die-casting industry, verified actuals convert genuine recycled content into a visibly lower CBAM cost.

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 7616? Three moves, in order.

01
Identify your production route and precursors
Document the alloy ingot supply — secondary smelters and their scrap share, or primary sources and their power — as the dominant precursor, then bound melting, casting and machining stages.
02
Collect the data you already have
Ingot purchase records with supplier traceability, melting and holding furnace energy data, machine-shop electricity bills, production weights by part family.
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 7616 and CBAM, in plain English

Is CN 7616 covered by CBAM?

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Yes. CN 7616 — other articles of aluminium — castings, forgings and machined components — 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. Automotive die-castings shipped to EU OEM programmes commonly import under this heading.

How much CBAM cost does CN 7616 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. Aluminium’s bill is dominated by electricity: coal-powered primary metal carries several times the embedded emissions of hydro-powered or scrap-based metal, so two identical consignments can face wildly different CBAM costs. Verified actuals typically cut the cost by up to ~40% versus defaults — use our calculator for a product-specific estimate.

Die-castings run on secondary alloy ingot. Isn’t our CBAM exposure minimal then?

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Your real emissions may well be low — secondary metal runs at 0.5–1.5 tCO₂/t against 14–18 for coal-power primary — but exposure on defaults is anything but minimal, because the EU’s conservative default ignores your recycled content entirely. The gap between what you actually emit and what defaults assume is precisely your opportunity: verified actuals put the low number on record and make your castings cheaper to import than un-documented competition.

Our EU OEM asks for both CBAM data and a product carbon footprint. Are those the same exercise?

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They overlap heavily but are not identical: CBAM requires embedded emissions computed to the EU’s specific methodology and boundaries, while OEM PCF requests often follow other standards. The good news is the data foundation — metered energy, material traceability, supplier data — is shared, so one properly-run data collection serves both. We build the CBAM filing as the regulatory backbone and the same dataset answers the OEM.

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