EU member states imported €1,150.3 million of electricity from Serbia in 2025, according to trade figures used for CBAM product-code screening. The same dataset shows that three flat-steel product families together accounted for more than €500 million in imports. The figures are based on broad customs codes and do not, by themselves, identify every good covered by the CBAM rules.
Electricity classified under HS271600 and EU CN 2716 00 00 totalled 9.84 terawatt-hours. The reported value was $1.30 billion, equivalent to about €1.15 billion and listed as €1,150.3 million. Because CBAM measures electricity in megawatt-hours, the trade value cannot be directly compared with steel or aluminium tonnage to assess embedded emissions.
Flat-steel imports from Serbia by HS product families
EU imports from Serbia of hot-rolled non-alloy flat steel under HS7208 were valued at $384.23 million, or about €340 million using the annual 2025 euro-dollar average. Coated or plated flat steel under HS7210 was worth approximately €109.3 million. Cold-rolled flat steel under HS7209 was valued at about €55.4 million.
Taken together, the three flat-steel families represented more than €500 million in reported imports from Serbia. The figures are presented as HS-level indicators for prioritisation rather than a definitive mapping to CBAM coverage for each individual item.
Aluminium flows include plates, packaging and fabricated articles
The aluminium trade covered processed and fabricated products as well as unwrought metal categories. EU imports included approximately €148.7 million of plate, sheet and strip under HS7606. Containers and similar packaging were valued at €78.6 million under HS7612, while other articles under HS7616 were about €62 million.
Other aluminium imports comprised roughly €44 million of structures under HS7610. Bars and profiles were approximately €41.4 million under HS7604. As with steel, these HS family totals indicate scale but do not determine which specific goods fall within CBAM product coverage.
CBAM coverage depends on CN8 classification in Annex I
The HS product-family values can support screening priorities, but coverage of an individual product depends on its specific eight-digit EU Combined Nomenclature code listed in Annex I. Some fabricated products in Chapter 73 or Chapter 76 are covered even when they appear less like primary materials.
By contrast, Serbia-to-EU ferrous scrap trade under HS7204 was around €22 million in 2025, and aluminium scrap under HS7602 was approximately €35 million. Both are described as being outside the initial CBAM product list.
Reconciling trade records with emissions data for importers
A commercial data extract for CBAM work should link trade value with quantities and include origin, producing installation, customs procedure, reporting importer, and the CN8 classification. Where companies trade through distributors, they need to reconcile product codes with emissions data because the importer must connect the reported footprint to the exact goods and quantities entering the EU.
A Serbian steel producer may provide a plant-level report for a coil, but the EU importer needs a defensible allocation of emissions to the relevant product classification and imported quantity. For downstream steel articles, precursor-material requirements and process boundaries add additional detail beyond plant-level reporting.
A generic certificate describing a company’s average footprint is not sufficient on its own for CBAM purposes. Importers also cannot calculate certificate obligations by multiplying a chapter’s total customs value by an emissions price.
The 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. The immediate business priority is therefore described as building a reconciled CN8 register, rather than relying on sector rankings.
The register should start with EU member-state import data where origin is Serbia and then limit 2025 flows to each legally applicable CN8 code while excluding goods that are not covered. Until that extraction is completed, broad HS4-family figures remain screening proxies rather than a complete audited CN8 CBAM import ledger.
Elevated by CBAM by Clarion Engineer