Former Chief Executive Officer, Jindal Stainless Ltd.
Former Chief Technical Officer, Tata Steel Europe, Europe
Former Managing Director, Corus Strip Products, United Kingdom (A Tata Group Company)
India's steel and aluminium exporters have built their European market presence over decades through quality, competitive pricing, and timely delivery. The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism now adds a new and permanent dimension to that equation � carbon performance. CBAM is not a passing policy experiment. It is a permanent, legally binding regulation that is already reshaping how European buyers evaluate and source from non-EU suppliers.
The stakes are high and the timeline is immediate. From January 2026, every tonne of steel and aluminium exported to Europe carries a carbon cost at the EU border. Producers who cannot provide independently verified emissions data will face punitive EU default values that can severely inflate their carbon liability � effectively pricing their products out of the European market regardless of their price or quality competitiveness. India should finalize its carbon trading system as soon as possible so it can help offset some of the costs associated with CBAM.
What this moment demands is a clear, actionable roadmap. Producers must deploy robust, process-level carbon measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems as a first priority. Beyond measurement, the path to carbon competitiveness runs through two parallel routes: for steel producers, the transition away from coal-heavy blast furnace routes toward scrap-based Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF) significantly reduces embedded emissions; for aluminium producers, linking production to renewable energy through captive solar, wind, or virtual Power Purchase Agreements is the defining lever.
India's secondary scrap-based producers who have already made this transition hold a natural and growing carbon advantage over primary producers in China and the Middle East � an advantage that is commercially significant and commercially quantifiable.
Large producers have a particular responsibility here that goes beyond their own compliance. The downstream MSME ecosystem � fabricators, processors, and component makers � forms a vital part of global supply chains, and without support in building emissions-tracking capabilities, these enterprises risk being excluded from European value chains entirely. Strengthening this supply chain is as much a competitive priority as it is a social one.
This handbook arrives at exactly the right moment. It translates a complex European regulation into clear, actionable guidance written specifically for Indian manufacturers and exporters. CBAM is already being mirrored by the United Kingdom, and other major economies including Japan are actively developing equivalent frameworks. The compliance capability built today will serve Indian exporters across multiple markets in the years ahead.
What distinguishes this work is its focus on opportunity rather than burden � showing how India's secondary producers, with their scrap-based processes and renewable energy advantage, can turn CBAM into a competitive weapon. Read it, act on it, and share it with your industry colleagues.
