How does the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) default value for hot-rolled flat steel under Combined Nomenclature (CN) 7208 compare across exporting countries?

Hot-rolled flat steel under CN 7208 carries 4.280 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per tonne for India, above the 4.049 the Commission lists for other countries and territories. Türkiye is 2.428 and Viet Nam 2.350. Only Indonesia (8.230) and Kazakhstan (5.290) are higher than India.

Where India sits among 32 countries

The code covers flat-rolled iron and non-alloy steel of a width of 600 mm or more, hot-rolled, not clad, plated or coated. Values are tonnes of CO2e per tonne, direct emissions only; the file marks indirect emissions N/A (not applicable) for this code.

• Indonesia 8.230, the same as the Annex IV value for this code
• Kazakhstan 5.290
• India 4.280
• South Africa 4.140
• Russian Federation 3.430, Uzbekistan 3.210, China 3.187
• Türkiye 2.428, Viet Nam 2.350, Taiwan 2.310
• South Korea 2.118 and Japan 2.100
• Brazil 1.620 and United States 1.400
• Azerbaijan 0.140, the lowest

India is above the fallback value

The Other countries and territories value for CN 7208 is 4.049, and India's 4.280 is 0.231 above it. The linked page on countries without a country row sets out the comparison.

What the number is and is not

• It is a country-level default. It does not describe a particular mill's route or fuel.
• India's row names route (C), carbon steel from blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace production, as the route behind the free allocation benchmark.
• A verified actual figure from your own installation replaces it for your shipments.

Mark-up

Guidance No. 3: 10% in 2026, 20% in 2027, 30% from 2028, applied to listed default values.

100 tonnes of hot-rolled coil imported in 2026 on default values

• India: 4.280 x 1.10 = 4.708 per tonne; x 100 = 470.8 tonnes of CO2e
• Other countries and territories: 4.049 x 1.10 = 4.4539 per tonne; x 100 = 445.39 tonnes
• Türkiye: 2.428 x 1.10 = 2.6708 per tonne; x 100 = 267.08 tonnes
• India against Türkiye: 470.8 minus 267.08 = 203.72 tonnes more on the same 100 tonnes

Our arithmetic from the Commission's listed values and the 10% mark-up for 2026. It shows embedded emissions before the free allocation adjustment and before any carbon price paid abroad. The Annex may show the per-tonne value rounded to three decimals, so a total read from it can differ slightly.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, which is the plant-side data behind an actual figure. It does not set default values, it is not a CBAM verifier and it does not file declarations.

• CBAM default values for Indian hot-rolled steel
• Steel defaults for countries with no row
• When the table shows a dash
• Default value mark-up by year
• CBAM for Indian exporters

Sources: European Commission, CBAM default values for the definitive period (Excel, version 2 of 6 August 2026), country sheets, Other Countries and Territories and Annex IV; legally binding values are in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1740 correcting (EU) 2025/2621, European Commission, Guidance No. 3, CBAM methods for the calculation of emissions embedded in goods (14 August 2026), section 4.10 on default values and mark-up

Last reviewed 2026-11-06. Values are from version 2 of the Commission's file (6 August 2026). The Commission says the default values act will be revised in 2027 at the latest, so re-check each value before you quote it to a buyer.