Senseible

What carbon figure does the EU give for steel scrap, pig iron and sponge iron in a melt shop's CBAM carbon balance?

The Commission's guide prints a standard table for iron and steel process materials. Steel scrap is 0.0109 tonnes of carbon per tonne, about 0.04 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Iron scrap and pig iron are 0.0409 (0.15), direct reduced iron (DRI), also called sponge iron, 0.0191 (0.07). Carbon leaving in steel counts as a negative.

The table, row by row

Table 4-11 in the guide's Annex D is headed 'Emission factors for process emissions from other process materials (production of iron or steel, and processing of ferrous metals)'. Each row gives carbon content in tonnes of carbon (C) per tonne of material, then the emission factor in tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per tonne. The source it names is the 2006 guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Direct reduced iron (DRI), also called sponge iron, is iron made from ore without melting it.

How the two columns connect

The guide's Equation 14 says carbon content = emission factor / f, where f is 3.664, the ratio of the molar masses of CO2 and carbon. Check on steel scrap: 0.0109 x 3.664 = 0.0399, printed as 0.04.

In the carbon balance, each material adds f x tonnes x carbon content (Equation 12). For materials that leave, such as the steel you sell, the tonnes count as negative.

Scrap carries carbon into the balance

Guidance 5d says carbon entering the process in scrap, alloys and graphite, and carbon remaining in the product or in slags or wastes, is taken into account by a mass balance. For the zero embedded emissions wording on scrap, see the page on pre-consumer steel scrap: the steel guide's footnote names only post-consumer scrap.

When this table is not enough

These are Type I values, because they come from the guide's Annex D. A better figure, such as your own accredited lab result, ranks higher on the guide's ladder. Natural gas, flux and other streams are separate lines in the balance.

Example: one month's carbon streams in an EAF shop, using the table defaults

Example tonnes. Slag and dust carbon, gas and flux are left out to keep it short. The table's 0.04 for steel is a fixed default. The guide's own worked example uses 0.18% carbon for steel out, and a heat analysis ranks higher. Use your heat analyses for steel leaving, as on the graphite electrode page. This example shows only these streams, not a plant result.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel and electricity bills into dated, fingerprinted records. Scrap lots and the pre-consumer split stay in your own register. Senseible does not verify a CBAM figure.

Sources: European Commission, CBAM Guidance No. 3, methods for calculating embedded emissions (14 August 2026), European Commission, CBAM Guidance No. 5d, iron and steel (14 August 2026)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Table 4-11 values, Equations 12 and 14 and the 'outputs negative' rule are from Guidance No. 3 (14 August 2026). The mass balance sentence follows Guidance No. 5d, section 2.2.3.7. Every table row was copied from the printed table and every sum was checked again: 44.0 + 60.0 + 45.6 = 149.6; 149.6 minus 40.0 = 109.6; the carbon column gives 29.9115 x 3.664 = 109.6. Other live pages give the IPCC electrode figure; this page adds the full Commission table and the scrap and iron rows.