EU member states imported electricity worth €1,150.3 million from Serbia in 2025, while three flat-steel product families generated more than €500 million in reported imports, 2025 trade statistics show. The figures point businesses towards commercially important trade flows for Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) data checks, but broad customs codes do not establish which goods fall within the EU law.
Electricity trade needs separate emissions data
Electricity traded from Serbia to EU member states is classified under HS271600 and EU Combined Nomenclature (CN) code 2716 00 00. The reported imports totalled 9.84 terawatt-hours and were valued at $1.30 billion, equivalent to about €1.15 billion using the 2025 trade figures.
CBAM measures electricity in megawatt-hours, so its trade value cannot be directly compared with the tonnage of steel or aluminium to assess embedded emissions. The value and volume identify the scale of the trade flow, but do not provide the emissions information needed for a product-level assessment.
Steel and aluminium families lead trade screening
EU imports of hot-rolled non-alloy flat steel from Serbia under HS7208 were valued at $384.23 million, equivalent to about €340 million using the annual 2025 euro-dollar average. Coated or plated flat steel under HS7210 was worth approximately €109.3 million, while cold-rolled flat steel under HS7209 was approximately €55.4 million.
Together, the three flat-steel families accounted for more than €500 million of reported EU imports from Serbia in 2025. Those values make shipment-level carbon-data work a priority for businesses trading the products, but do not by themselves establish the CBAM status of individual shipments.
Aluminium imports also span processed and fabricated products, rather than only unwrought metal. EU imports included approximately €148.7 million of plate, sheet and strip under HS7606 and €78.6 million of containers and similar packaging under HS7612. Other aluminium articles under HS7616 were worth about €62 million.
Imports of aluminium structures under HS7610 were roughly €44 million, while bars and profiles under HS7604 were approximately €41.4 million in 2025. The product-family values indicate a range of Serbian aluminium processing and fabrication trade with EU customers.
CN8 classification is needed for compliance work
Broad HS product-family values can help businesses screen where to begin, but coverage depends on a product’s specific eight-digit EU CN description in Annex I. Some fabricated products in Chapter 73 or Chapter 76 are covered by CBAM, even if they appear less like primary materials. Broad HS headings therefore cannot be treated as the CBAM tariff list.
Serbia-to-EU ferrous scrap trade under HS7204 was around €22 million in 2025, while aluminium scrap under HS7602 was approximately €35 million. Both are outside the initial CBAM product list. An importer cannot calculate its certificate obligation by multiplying a chapter’s total customs value by an emissions price.
CBAM charges depend on embedded emissions, applicable adjustments, carbon prices recognised as already paid in the country of origin, and the phase-out of EU free allowances. A commercial data extract should bring together quantities, origin, producing installation, customs procedure, reporting importer and CN8 classification, as well as value.
Businesses working through distributors face particular urgency in reconciling product classifications and emissions data. A Serbian steel producer may issue a plant-level report for a coil, but the EU importer needs a defensible allocation of those emissions to the exact product classification and imported quantity.
For downstream steel articles, precursor-material requirements and process boundaries add detail; a generic certificate describing a company’s average footprint is not sufficient by itself. The immediate priority is a reconciled CN8 register, starting with EU member-state import data where origin is Serbia, restricting 2025 flows to each legally applicable CN8 code and removing non-covered goods.
Until that extraction is complete, broad HS4-family figures remain screening proxies, not a complete audited CN8 CBAM import ledger.
Elevated by CBAM.Clarion Engineer