On 15 September 2026 the European Parliament adopted its position on extending the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to downstream goods. The plenary vote was 464 to 50, with 159 abstentions. The same sitting adopted a related position on a temporary decarbonisation fund, by 433 votes to 97, with 146 abstentions. Both texts are mandates for talks with the Council, not adopted law.
The vote does not put a carbon certificate on scrap. Ferrous waste and scrap under CN 7204 and aluminium waste and scrap under CN 7602 remain outside CBAM, as the site’s CBAM guide already records. What would change, if the Parliament line survives trilogue, is the carbon cost on a longer list of finished steel and aluminium articles entering the Union.
What the Parliament asked for
Parliament agrees with the Commission that CBAM should move beyond basic materials. The official press release names finished steel and aluminium goods such as fasteners, wire, springs and household articles, and says MEPs broadened the list beyond the Commission proposal, including additional steel-containing goods put forward by the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE).
MEPs also tightened anti-circumvention language: a lower threshold for when a small change to a good counts as avoidance, a focus on arrangements set up to dodge CBAM rather than ordinary cost-cutting, and a power for the Commission to apply the true country of origin’s default values where a pattern of circumvention is found. They rejected a Commission safeguard that would have allowed goods to be taken out of scope after a price shock.
The temporary decarbonisation fund is meant to support EU producers on export markets. MEPs want payments from 2027 to 2029, a year earlier than the Commission’s 2028 start, and they want downstream users of CBAM-covered inputs to be eligible. Parliament is now ready to open interinstitutional negotiations.
Eurofer welcomed the vote. In a note sent to Kallanish and reported by Eurometal on 17 September, the steel association said the extension to more products made from steel, including the ITRE priority list, was the main point: “Broader coverage makes it harder to avoid CBAM by manufacturing steel into finished products outside Europe and then importing them into the EU.” Before the vote, Eurofer had also backed counting emissions from ferro-nickel and nickel pig iron used in imported stainless steel, and closing a gap where steel enters the EU for processing and is then re-exported.
Eurometal welcomed the downstream extension and warned that large numbers of steel-containing goods still sit outside the mechanism. “Global suppliers will naturally redirect production towards categories that remain exempt, moving additional processing steps outside Europe while continuing to access the EU market,” the steel distribution federation said. It also argued that European exporters still cannot recover carbon costs embedded in steel bought in the EU.
Who it affects among yards, traders, mills and processors
European electric-arc mills and stainless remelters are the intended industrial beneficiaries. If imported fasteners, wire and other fabricated articles carry a carbon charge closer to EU ETS costs, the incentive to finish those goods from metal melted in the Union is stronger. That melt is often scrap-based. Eurofer’s stainless argument is explicit: Europe’s largely scrap-based stainless production looks cleaner once ferro-nickel and nickel pig iron in competing imports are counted. Yards that already prepare 304 and 316 solids for a known melt have a clearer home-mill story than a mixed export bag.
The effect on a ferrous or aluminium lot is still indirect. CBAM prices the imported article, not the skip. A Turkish coil or a Chinese fastener may become more expensive at the border; HMS or shredded scrap leaving a North Sea port does not pick up a CBAM certificate. Export controls and the draft waste-import list remain the files that decide whether a waste cargo can leave for a non-OECD port after May 2027.
Traders booking seaborne ferrous for Turkey and South Asia should not treat the Parliament vote as a substitute for shipment paperwork. Processors that sell prepared specification into EU mills may see more questions about whether an arising is post-consumer obsolete scrap or new-production offcuts. That distinction is already in the 2026 CBAM debate; this vote did not settle it. Until trilogue does, do not price a parcel on a pre-consumer treatment that is not in force.
Aluminium remelters sit in the same logic as steel. Unwrought aluminium imported into the Union is already a CBAM good; the aluminium scrap that fed a remelt outside the EU is not. A longer downstream list makes fabricated aluminium articles harder to use as a way around that. It does not change how a yard names Taldon, Tata or Twitch.
What to do while trilogue runs
Record the vote as a negotiating position. The Commission proposal, the Council’s earlier general approach and Parliament’s 15 September text still have to be reconciled. Product codes, start dates and any precursor rules for pre-consumer scrap can move.
For current business, keep selling on grade, tonnes and place. If an EU mill or a fabricator that exports CBAM goods asks whether the lot is obsolete scrap or factory arising, answer if you know. Do not attach a carbon-saving claim to the scrap itself.
Name the grade the buyer can melt, the tonnes, the city or load port, and whether the material is waste or claimed as end-of-waste. Verified companies can place the parcel on live lots or post a wanted enquiry. Request access if you need a member account.