CBAM for cement exporters in India
The European Commission publishes a default emission value for every cement product it covers, per country of origin. Those are the figures your EU buyer is charged on when you supply nothing, and for India this sector has 8 CN codes with a published value. They are all below.
CBAM is paid by the importer, not by you. What reaches you is the price difference between a buyer who has your verified figures and one who does not.
5 with a value published for India
Aluminous cement
the median across this sector
rising to 30% from 2028
What this costs, in money
A CBAM certificate costs EUR 75.28 per tonne of CO2e, as published by the European Commission for Q2 2026. On the default value with this year's mark-up, every 1,000 tonnes you ship costs your buyer:
2.29 tCO2e/t · CN 2523 30 00
1.47 tCO2e/t
0.32 tCO2e/t · CN 2507 00 80 80
Per 1,000 tonnes of product, on the default value plus the 10% mark-up that applies when verified figures are not supplied. This is an illustration of the published values, not a quotation, and the certificate price changes each quarter.
Cement is not measured per tonne of cement
Article 4 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2547 sets the functional unit for CN 2523 10 00, 2523 21 00, 2523 29 00 and 2523 90 00 as tonnes of clinker contained, not tonnes of cement. A producer who divides their emissions by tonnes of cement gets a specific embedded emissions figure that is wrong by the clinker ratio, and it looks entirely plausible.
The default values in the table below are stated per tonne of the good, which is a different basis again. The calculator handles both and converts between them, which is why it asks for your clinker content.
Use the calculatorIndia default emission values, cement
From the European Commission workbook, version 2 dated 2026-08-06. Heaviest first. Direct and indirect are shown separately where the Commission publishes them.
| CN code | Product | Direct | Indirect | Total | Per 1,000 t |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2523 30 00 | Aluminous cement | 2.05 | 0.24 | 2.29 | EUR 189,630 |
| 2523 90 00 10 | White hydraulic cement no India value published, Annex IV highest applies | - | - | 1.53 | EUR 126,696 |
| 2523 29 00 | Grey Portland cement | 1.39 | 0.09 | 1.48 | EUR 122,556 |
| 2523 21 00 | White Portland cement | 1.33 | 0.14 | 1.47 | EUR 121,728 |
| 2523 10 00 90 | Other clinker including grey clinker | 1.39 | 0.05 | 1.44 | EUR 119,244 |
| 2523 90 00 90 | Other hydraulic cements including grey hydraulic cements no India value published, Annex IV highest applies | - | - | 1.42 | EUR 117,587 |
| 2523 10 00 10 | White clinker | 1.35 | 0.07 | 1.41 | EUR 116,759 |
| 2507 00 80 80 | Calcined clay no India value published, Annex IV highest applies | - | - | 0.32 | EUR 26,499 |
Values in tCO2e per tonne of the good. Per 1,000 t includes the 10% mark-up for 2026 and uses the Q2 2026 certificate price. Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621, Annexes I and IV as replaced by (EU) 2026/1740.
How to pay less than the default
- 1 Find your CN code in the table above and see what the default would cost your buyer.
- 2 Work out your actual specific embedded emissions on the correct functional unit.
- 3 Get the embedded emissions of every precursor from whoever produced it.
- 4 Have the figures verified once accredited verifiers exist, then give them to your importer.
Where cement sits
- Indirect emissions
- In scope. Electricity consumed by the production process counts.
- Mark-up on defaults
- 10% in 2026, rising to 30 per cent from 2028.
- CCTS overlap
- This is also a notified CCTS sector in India, so you may already report to BEE. That reporting does not satisfy CBAM.
- First declaration
- 30 September 2027, filed by your EU importer.
Default values for the other sectors
Questions Indian cement exporters ask
How much does CBAM cost Indian cement exporters?
It is not charged to you. CBAM certificates are surrendered by the importer in the EU. What it costs you is competitiveness: on the highest default value in this sector, 2.29 tCO2e per tonne, a buyer importing 1,000 tonnes pays roughly EUR 189,630 once the 10% mark-up is added. A supplier who provides verified figures lower than the default makes their goods cheaper to import.
What is the CBAM default value for cement from India?
There is no single figure. The Commission publishes a value per CN code, and for cement from India there are 8 of them, ranging from 0.32 to 2.29 tCO2e per tonne of the good, with a median of 1.47. The table on this page lists every one, so the answer for your product depends on which code you export under.
What mark-up applies when default values are used?
For cement it is 10 per cent in 2026, 20 per cent in 2027 and 30 per cent from 2028 onwards. The mark-up exists to make default values the worse option, and it is added on top of a value already set conservatively.
Is cement measured per tonne of cement or per tonne of clinker?
Specific embedded emissions are measured per tonne of clinker contained, under Article 4 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2547, for CN 2523 10 00, 2523 21 00, 2523 29 00 and 2523 90 00. The default values in the table are stated per tonne of the good, which is a different basis. Dividing your emissions by tonnes of cement instead of tonnes of clinker gives a figure that is wrong by the clinker ratio and looks entirely plausible.
Does my CCTS or PAT reporting to BEE cover CBAM?
No. CCTS measures greenhouse gas emission intensity at entity level against an Indian target. CBAM measures absolute embedded emissions in specific goods, per production process, on a functional unit the EU regulation sets, and requires the embedded emissions of your precursors as well. The underlying fuel and production records carry across. The calculation, the boundary and the verifier do not.
When do I need this by?
Your EU importer files the first annual declaration on 30 September 2027, covering everything imported during 2026. Their own timetable is earlier than that: certificate sales open on 1 February 2027, and from 2027 they must hold certificates covering at least half their year to date emissions at each quarter end. A buyer without your figures by then is buying against default values.
Can I get my emissions verified now?
Not yet. Verification must be done by a verifier accredited by a national accreditation body in the EU or EEA, and no verifier anywhere in the EU held CBAM accreditation when this was last checked. Preparing the data is still worth doing now, because it is the same data either way and collecting it late is how default values end up being used.
Values read from the European Commission workbook and verified against source on 16 September 2026. The workbook refreshes automatically. Preparation estimate. Not an official CBAM declaration or verification.