EU member states imported €1,150.3 million of electricity from Serbia in 2025, while three flat-steel product families accounted for more than €500 million, according to 2025 trade statistics. The figures identify important trade flows for companies preparing for the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), but broad customs codes are screening indicators rather than a list of goods covered by the law.
Electricity imports, classified under HS271600 and EU CN 2716 00 00, amounted to 9.84 terawatt-hours. Their reported value was $1.30 billion, equivalent to about €1.15 billion. CBAM measures electricity in megawatt-hours, so its trade value cannot be compared directly with steel or aluminium tonnage to assess embedded emissions.
Steel and aluminium flows require product checks
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 worth approximately €55.4 million. Together, the three families represented more than €500 million of reported imports.
The scale of those flows makes shipment-level carbon-data work a priority for companies trading the products. Aluminium imports also show activity across processed and fabricated goods, rather than only unwrought metal. Imports included approximately €148.7 million of plate, sheet and strip under HS7606 and €78.6 million of containers and similar packaging under HS7612.
EU imports of other aluminium articles under HS7616 were worth about €62 million. Structures under HS7610 accounted for roughly €44 million, while bars and profiles under HS7604 were worth approximately €41.4 million. These product-family values can help businesses decide where to begin compliance work, but they do not determine whether a particular product is covered.
Coverage depends on the product’s eight-digit EU Combined Nomenclature classification in Annex I. Some fabricated products in Chapter 73 or Chapter 76 are covered despite appearing 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 outside the initial CBAM product list.
Importers need reconciled shipment and emissions records
A broad HS heading cannot be treated as a CBAM tariff list, and an importer cannot calculate its certificate obligation by multiplying a chapter’s total customs value by an emissions price. 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.
For CBAM work, a commercial data extract should pair value with quantities, origin, producing installation, customs procedure, reporting importer and CN8 classification. Businesses operating through distributors face particular urgency in reconciling product codes 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 emissions to the exact product classification and imported quantity.
Downstream steel articles require additional detail on precursor materials and process boundaries; a generic certificate describing a company’s average footprint is not sufficient by itself. The immediate priority is a reconciled CN8 register, rather than another sector ranking. It should begin with EU member-state import data where origin is Serbia, restrict 2025 flows to each legally applicable CN8 code and remove 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
