CBAM was described as “the opportunity EU steel mills have been crying out for” as MEPS panellists discussed the added cost of newly introduced emissions-based import taxes in the latest Speaking of Steel podcast.

The European Commission’s December publication of the EU emissions benchmarks and country-specific default emissions values that are central to the calculation of CBAM taxes should have provided clarity to steel market participants. Instead, its 1,600 pages of documents left many in a continued state of uncertainty.

In the latest instalment of the Speaking of Steel podcast, MEPS’s head of price analysis and forecasts, Kaye Ayub, joins steel market analyst Jon Carruthers-Green and managing editor Tom Sharpe to discuss the repercussions of CBAM import taxes implemented from January 1.

The “counting the cost of carbon” episode of Speaking of Steel reveals:

The cost of CBAM taxes on the EU’s most imported steel products.How high country-specific default emissions values have prompted mills’ race to verify their actual carbon output.The EU’s evolving carbon market: how CBAM costs will be influenced by the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).Details of the CBAM methodology and how it might evolve.The European Commission’s role as a pioneer of emissions-based import taxes, and whether others might be encouraged to follow its lead.

Episode ID: 1000744831908

GUID: e6daaa33-4a55-41d1-8e62-397ebf7174be

Release Date: 12/01/2026, 20:46:49