March 18, 2026·10 min read·customs-invoice team

CBAM for Steel and Iron Imports: BF/BOF vs EAF and Why Your Supplier Matters

EAF steel from Turkey costs ~60% less in CBAM than BF/BOF steel from China. Same CN code, same tonnage. Here's the EU production-route catalog, the actual default intensities, and one worked example end-to-end.

Short version.Steel is the highest-volume CBAM sector by tonnage and the one where supplier choice changes your CBAM cost the most. EAF (Electric Arc Furnace) steel from Turkey costs roughly 60% less in CBAM than BF/BOF (Blast Furnace + Basic Oxygen Furnace) steel from China, even at the same CN code. Most importers don't know their supplier's production route. Here's how to find out, what the EU defaults look like, and one worked example end-to-end.

Run a steel-sector calc with one click

Pre-filled with CN 72081000 (hot-rolled coil) from Turkey. See the EAF cost for 100 t in under a second; switch origin to China or India to compare.

Open the steel calculator

Steel is the biggest sector under CBAM

By volume of certificates expected to be surrendered in 2026, iron and steel is roughly 60% of the total CBAM market. The EU imports ~25 million tonnes per year of CBAM-scope steel products, mostly from Turkey, India, China, South Korea, Russia (pre-sanctions), and Ukraine. CBAM scope spans CN 7208 (hot-rolled flat) through CN 7308 (structural assemblies) — about 70 distinct 8-digit codes per Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2023/956.

For an importer, that means the calculator's output for a single steel shipment routinely lands in the Heavy (€399) or Enterprise (€899) PAYG tier, or pulls from a PRO subscription's €100k/month tax quota. See our CBAM pricing for the tier bands.

Production routes: BF/BOF, EAF, BF/EAF hybrid

EU Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2620 §5.3 publishes a catalog of production routes per CBAM CN code. For steel, the three routes that matter:

Route	EU code	Direct intensity	Where it dominates
BF/BOF integrated	(C)	~2.0 tCO₂e/t	China, India, Korea, large EU mills
EAF (scrap-based)	(D)	~0.4 tCO₂e/t	Turkey, US, Italy, Spain
EAF (DRI-based)	(E)	~0.7–1.4 tCO₂e/t	Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt

Indirect emissions (electricity used by the EAF) are reported but NOT surrendered for iron/steel during the definitive period per Implementing Reg 2025/2547. So EAF's cost advantage is even bigger than the direct-intensity table suggests — the indirect emissions don't show up in the surrender calculation at all.

Worked example: 100 t hot-rolled coil from Turkey vs China

Same CN code (72081000), same tonnage (100 t), same import quarter (Q1 2026 at €75.36/tCO₂e). Different origin, different routes:

Step	Turkey (EAF, scrap)	China (BF/BOF)
Direct intensity (EU default)	0.40 tCO₂e/t	2.00 tCO₂e/t
Direct emissions (× 100 t)	40 tCO₂e	200 tCO₂e
Free allocation deduction (~)	−25 tCO₂e	−125 tCO₂e
Net surrender	15 tCO₂e	75 tCO₂e
× certificate price (€75.36)	~€1,130	~€5,650

Same product, same tonnage, ~5× cost difference. For a broker advising an importer, this is the single most useful CBAM insight: switching origin / route is often cheaper than absorbing the CBAM cost. Run both scenarios in the calculator to see them live.

The supplier-data conversation

The EU defaults in the table above are conservative — designed so that EU mills aren't disadvantaged relative to non-EU mills using EU defaults. If your supplier has verified data, it's usually lower than the default, which directly reduces your CBAM cost. Three things to ask your supplier:

Production route— BF/BOF, EAF scrap-based, EAF DRI-based, or hybrid.
Direct embedded emissions per tonne of product (tCO₂e/t), measured per Reg 2025/2547 §3 Column A.
Verifier accreditation— if a third-party EU-accredited verifier signed the report (Reg 2025/2621), the calculator accepts it as Column A data; if not, it's treated as Column B (still better than default but with a quality flag).

What our calculator does for steel imports

Auto-detects steel-sector CN codes and surfaces the production-route picker (BF/BOF / EAF scrap / EAF DRI / hybrid).
Pulls EU default intensities per route from a daily-refreshed mirror of Reg 2025/2620 §5.3 publication data.
Accepts verified intensity as an Advanced-stage override.
Renders a tamper-evident PDF with route + intensity source cited for the broker, the NCA, or the audit trail.

Run a steel-sector calc with one click

Pre-filled with CN 72081000 (hot-rolled coil) from Turkey. See the EAF cost for 100 t in under a second; switch origin to China or India to compare.

Open the steel calculator

FAQ

What's the difference between BF/BOF and EAF steel for CBAM?

BF/BOF (Blast Furnace / Basic Oxygen Furnace) is the integrated route — coal-derived coke reduces iron ore into pig iron, then BOF converts it into steel. Direct emissions intensity is ~2.0–2.4 tCO₂e per tonne of crude steel. EAF (Electric Arc Furnace) melts scrap or DRI (direct-reduced iron) using grid electricity. Direct emissions are far lower (~0.4–0.6 tCO₂e per tonne) but indirect emissions depend heavily on the local electricity mix. For CBAM in 2026, indirect emissions for iron/steel are reported but not surrendered, so EAF wins on cost in nearly every origin country.

Why does origin country matter so much for steel?

Two reasons. (1) Different countries lean on different production routes — Turkey is ~70% EAF, China is ~85% BF/BOF, India is mixed. The CBAM cost of one tonne of CN 72081000 from Turkey can be ~60% lower than the same code from China simply because of route mix. (2) The supplier-data quality varies. Large EU-adjacent mills (Turkey, Ukraine pre-war) often have verified emissions reports; smaller mills in distant origins typically don't, forcing the importer onto EU defaults which are punitively conservative.

Are downstream steel products (screws, beams, pipes) in scope?

Some, not all. Annex I of Reg 2023/956 lists ~70 CN codes in the iron-and-steel sector, including hot-rolled flat (CN 7208), cold-rolled flat (CN 7209), bars and rods (CN 7214), structural shapes (CN 7216), wire (CN 7217), tubes (CN 7304), pipes (CN 7305–7306), and structural assemblies (CN 7308). Fasteners like screws and bolts (CN 7318) are NOT in scope as of the 2026 definitive period — only basic and intermediate steel products are.

How do I get verified intensity from my Turkish or Indian mill?

Ask for a CBAM-format embedded-emissions report covering the relevant production route (BF/BOF, EAF, BF/EAF hybrid). Most mid-to-large mills now have these — the EU customer pressure has been intense since 2024. The report should reference Reg 2025/2547 §3 Column A methodology, give per-route direct intensity in tCO₂e per tonne of crude steel, and ideally be third-party verified by an EU-accredited verifier per Reg 2025/2621. If your supplier hasn't heard of CBAM, that's a signal to use the EU default and start the conversation.

Sources

Regulation (EU) 2023/956 — Annex I CN-code list (iron-and-steel: ~70 codes in CN Chapters 72–73).
Implementing Reg (EU) 2025/2547 — embedded-emissions methodology + indirect-emissions surrender table (iron/steel: report only, no surrender during definitive period).
Implementing Reg (EU) 2025/2620 — production-route catalog (§5.3) for steel BF/BOF, EAF, hybrid.
Implementing Reg (EU) 2025/2621 — verifier accreditation for Column A verified intensity data.