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The European Commission published the first-quarter 2026 Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) certificate price on Tuesday April 7, applicable to all CBAM-eligible goods imported into the EU in January-March 2026.The first-quarter 2026 CBAM certificate price was €75.36 ($89.64) per tCO2e.
Certificate prices reflect the volume weighted average (VWA) price of European Allowances (EUAs) that are auctioned in the primary market of the EU’s Emission Trading System (ETS), to achieve the Commission’s objective of ensuring that domestic and international producers face equivalent carbon costs.
EUA prices were volatile in the quarter, rising above €90 per tCO2e in January before falling to the low €60s per tCO2e by mid-March on policy uncertainty ahead of the upcoming ETS reform. Spot EUAs have risen to €70.07 per tCO2e this week.
A price formation process for the second-quarter CBAM certificate price was starting to take shape. More than 94% of allocated EUAs remained to be auctioned in the April-June quarter, but early indications for the quarter’s CBAM certificate price were slightly lower than the first quarter at €70.50 ($82.23) per tCO2e.
While CBAM certificates can only be purchased and surrendered from February 2027, importers into the EU will have to use certificates that correspond to the quarter in which they were imported.
In 2026, the Commission will calculate and publish four quarterly prices that will be used for all CBAM imports this year. From 2027, the CBAM certificate price will be published weekly rather than quarterly.
Each quarterly price in 2026 will be calculated the during the first calendar week following the end of the relevant quarter.
The amount of CBAM certificates an importer will be required to surrender,at the prevailing CBAM certificate price, will depend on whether they have used default or actual emissions data to calculate their CBAM costs.
To calculate embedded emissions, importers have the choice of using actual emission values (verified data that corresponds exactly to how much carbon was emitted during the production of the good) or default values (average embedded-emission intensities for each product and production route).
Default values are deliberately designed to be punitive, to give an incentive for the use of actual emissions data. Because of this, mark-ups were attached to default values, which will be phased in over the course of three years.
The publication of the first-quarter CBAM price should give importers greater clarity on what their cost exposure could be, with default values now setting a ceiling.
Using default values for CN Code 7601 (unwrought, un-alloyed aluminium) for some of the highest exporters of aluminium to the EU – China, Turkey, Russia, India and Canada), importers could calculate their likely maximum CBAM cost exposure.
Exports from China that arrived in the ), importers EU in the first quarter would face CBAM costs of €144.13 ($171.45) per tonne, with imports from Turkey facing just €36.37 per tonne. Imports from Russia would face a €74.50 per tonne CBAM cost, India €50.46 per tonne and Canada €57.92 per tonne.
Looking at steel and hot-rolled coil imports into the EU through the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF/BOF) route, product imported from Turkey that arrived in the EU in the first quarter would have CBAM costs of €100.55 per tonne using default values. Meanwhile, imports from India would incur CBAM costs of €254.13 per tonne, imports from Algeria €148.03 per tonne and €94.14 per tonne for imports from Vietnam.
Those that are able to verify actual emissions should end up paying costs well below these levels.
The Fastmarkets CBAM Intelligence Suite provides the cost modelling, EU ETS price scenarios and facility-level data behind the analysis in this article. To model your own CBAM exposure by product, country and route, contact our carbon team at cbamcarbon.queries@fastmarkets.com.
How EUA scenarios translate into CBAM costs, why steel and aluminium pass through differently, and what it means for your sourcing — with Tata Steel, Norsk Hydro, Volvo, Redshaw Advisors.