Cement importers dread CBAM rollout as EU finally releases details

The European Commission announced updates to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) Dec. 17, publishing the implementing and delegate acts for the definitive period and proposing additional anti-circumvention measures, but European cement and clinker importers say they are "dreading" the implementation phase from Jan. 1.

"It has been very difficult to follow, there have been lots of leaked documents, lots of calculations, so we are dreading the beginning of the year," a European clinker importer told Platts in an interview Dec. 17. "It is unbelievable that we are in this situation in mid-December, just two weeks before the implementation."

The importer source added that small and medium-sized enterprises have been the most severely affected in the way the CBAM rollout has been handled by Brussels.

"I am quite angry with the European Commission. Big players have the resources on hand, as they are already familiar with the EU ETS and have been working on it for years. However, for SMEs in the cement industry, companies that import clinker and face the CBAM, this is unacceptable. Even if we have the details now, we have done all our negotiations, our budget and our price negotiations for next year without knowing the exact financial impact of CBAM, so it is not an easy situation."

A source from a large European cement trading company added, "The European Commission should have released all these documents in September, so when that didn't happen, I knew it would be messy."

Importers said the focus is now on working with producers to ensure the verification of embedded emissions and avoid default values.

"The default numbers are there to incentivize players to be audited because with those numbers they won't be able to sell to Europe," the trader said. "In case someone imports from non-audited sources, it will be a big mess in 2027."

Other producers stated that they have already increased cement prices to account for CBAM costs.

"For next year, we have increased our cement prices and also introduced a special environmental contribution defined by the type of cement," the producer said. "Depending on the market and on the type of cement, we have increased prices by Eur5-6% and the introduction of the contribution for environmental transition will add another Eur6-8/mt depending on the cement type and the prevailing EU carbon price, and we will validate this monthly."

Another large European importer stated that they are now seeking to source more from within Europe to address the CBAM.

"But unfortunately, there is a limited supply available from within Europe," the source said. "Q1 2026 will be difficult as everyone will wait-and-see the real impact on trade."