# How to Finance CBAM Compliance for a Steel Exporter in Vietnam

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/finance-cbam-compliance-steel-vietnam

Published 2026-10-13.

For a Vietnamese steel exporter, 2026 brought two changes from Brussels at once. From 1 January, EU importers of steel started owing CBAM certificates for the embedded emissions in what they buy. From 1 July, a permanent EU steel import regime replaced the old safeguard, with lower duty-free quotas and a higher duty beyond them, as trade press reported.

Both make the same thing valuable: steel whose emissions per tonne are measured, lower and provable. The question this article answers is how a Vietnamese mill or processor pays for getting there.

## What the EU now asks

**CBAM.** The importer declares the embedded emissions in each tonne and buys certificates for them, with certificate sales for 2026 imports from February 2027 and the first annual declaration due by 30 September 2027. If the supplier cannot provide actual emissions, the importer uses EU default values, and for steel those carry a mark-up of 10 percent in 2026, 20 percent in 2027 and 30 percent from 2028. A mill with measured data is cheaper to buy from.

**The steel import regime.** Reported by trade press and agencies: the Council adopted the measure on 8 June 2026; from 1 July duty-free quotas fell by about 47 percent to about 18.3 million tonnes a year, imports above quota pay 50 percent, and from 1 October 2026 importers must show where the steel was first melted and poured. Check the Official Journal text for your products.

The Vietnam Steel Association has warned that weak preparation could cost exporters their EU business.

## Where green finance fits

Vietnam now has a legal definition of green. **Decision 21/2025/QĐ-TTg**, signed on 4 July 2025 and in force from 22 August 2025, sets the national green taxonomy. A project qualifies when it meets environmental law, with an approved impact assessment or a permit, and delivers environmental benefits under the categories listed in its appendix, with certification by state authorities or accredited independent bodies. Banks also apply the State Bank of Vietnam's Circular 17/2022 on environmental risk in lending.

For a steel company, the likely candidates are energy efficiency in furnaces and rolling, waste-heat recovery, rooftop solar and more scrap in the charge. Whether a given project qualifies depends on the appendix criteria, so ask the bank to confirm the category before you build the application around it.

## What to prepare

The same evidence serves the importer and the bank:

1. **Emissions per tonne by product and production route,** from fuel, electricity and raw-material records for each installation.
2. **A monitoring plan** that meets the CBAM methodology, so the numbers can be verified.
3. **The project file:** baseline, expected reduction, supplier quotations and the taxonomy category.
4. **Melt-and-pour records** for each shipment, now that the import regime asks for them.

For a step-by-step readiness plan, see [the 90-day CBAM plan for Vietnamese steel exporters](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/vietnamese-exporters-prepare-eu-cbam-90-days). To see how actual data changes the bill, use the [CBAM calculator](https://senseible.earth/cbam-calculator), which lets you choose Vietnam as the country of origin, and [CBAM default values versus actual emissions](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/cbam-default-values-vs-actual-emissions-msme-decision-guide).

Senseible turns fuel, power and purchase invoices into emission records linked to their source documents. Confirm eligibility and terms with the lender before you apply.

## Related guides

- [Vietnam's green taxonomy and green credit](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/vietnam-green-taxonomy-decision-21)
- [green loan for a steel business in Johannesburg](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/green-loan-steel-business-johannesburg)
- [green loans for steel MSMEs in Ludhiana](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/green-loan-steel-msme-ludhiana-raipur)
- [green loan for a cement plant in Pakistan](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/green-loan-cement-plant-pakistan)
- [green loan for a textile mill in Tamil Nadu](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/green-loan-textile-mill-tamil-nadu)