One result is that steel importers will no longer be obliged to purchase CBAM certificates quarterly in 2026, as was planned originally.
The amendments were presented as part of the Clean Industrial Deal proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday. This was intended to serve as a framework to tailor action in Europe’s energy-intensive industries, including steel and metals, and the clean tech sector, to support decarbonization initiatives.
The official version of CBAM amendments complied with the changes, which were leaked into the public space earlier this week.
But the delay to the beginning of CBAM certificate sales will not remove the financial burden related to CO2 emissions, it will only shift it to the next year, Fastmarkets understands.
“The changes may relieve some immediate pressure, but the financial risk exposure stays the same,” Louis Redshaw, chief executive officer of Redshaw Advisors, said. “Companies will still be [liable] for 2026 emissions but won’t need to fully account for them until 2027. This delay doesn’t remove the financial burden, it just shifts when it [will become effective].”
Another change was the introduction of a new annual de minimis threshold to exempt small importers from the CBAM requirements. This meant that only companies importing more than 50 tonnes (or 100 tonnes of embedded CO2) of net mass of goods, covered by the legislation, will have to comply.
But representatives of the steel and metals industries commented that this change would make little difference because their shipment volumes were usually well above the threshold.
European steel association Eurofer also said that, although the proposed Clean Industrial Deal and the amendments in the CBAM have managed to identify the right problems, they offered only partial solutions.
The association expected that more measures would be included in the Steel and Metals Action Plan, which was expected to be announced on March 4 during the Strategic Dialogue on Steel, organized by the European Commission.
