Articles
Data stories built on Eurostat trade figures and the official CBAM default values, plus explainers for each sector.
Data
The EU carbon border in numbers
113 million tonnes of steel, aluminium, cement and fertilisers from 150 countries: who supplies Europe, and what CBAM would cost them at default values.
From 2026 to 2034: how the CBAM bill grows
Free allocation disappears and default value mark-ups triple. The same imports would cost almost twice as much by 2034.
Why default values are expensive
Country averages, a mark-up and a benchmark set at Europe's best plants: the arithmetic that makes real supplier data worth paying for.
Sectors
Blast furnace, DRI or scrap: why the steel route sets the price
The CBAM benchmark depends on how the steel was made. A guide to routes C to J and what they mean for exporters.
Aluminium: primary, secondary and the power behind the smelter
Why Canadian and Ukrainian aluminium carry much lower defaults than Chinese metal, and why only direct emissions count.
Fertilisers and ammonia under CBAM
The one sector with a 1 % mark-up, indirect emissions included, and supply chains running through North Africa and the Black Sea.
Cement and clinker: a Mediterranean story
Most of Europe's imported cement crosses the Mediterranean or the Black Sea. CBAM changes the economics of short sea routes.
Iron ore pellets: the CBAM good almost nobody talks about
Agglomerated iron ore is the heaviest CBAM import by tonnage, yet it carries almost no CBAM cost. Here is why.
Policy
Carbon prices abroad and the CBAM deduction
China, Türkiye, Korea, the UK and India all price carbon in some form. When does a carbon price paid at home reduce the CBAM bill?
The UK: its own CBAM in 2027 and a possible exemption from the EU's
The UK launches a CBAM on 1 January 2027. Linking the UK and EU emissions trading systems could take British goods out of EU CBAM.
Russia: what still crosses the border, and what CBAM adds
Sanctions and tariffs already restrict Russian steel, aluminium and fertilisers. The flows that remain still face CBAM.
Exporters
Türkiye's cement and the ‘other countries’ default
Europe's biggest supplier of CBAM goods has no country-specific default for cement, so the higher fallback applies to millions of tonnes.
Indonesia: the most expensive steel defaults in the atlas
Default values above 9 tCO₂e per tonne turn Indonesian flat steel into one of the largest CBAM exposures, despite modest volumes.
A checklist for producers outside the EU
Registering installations, monitoring emissions, verification and sharing data with EU customers — in the order that matters.