IACBAM: CBAM stimulates carbon markets, increasing the risk of EU imports
In the coming years, carbon markets will grow around the world, and jurisdictions will want to keep tax revenues at home in order to spend them on decarbonizing the industry, rather than paying them to the EU under CBAM. The clients of importers from the EU, meanwhile, strive for the convenience of obtaining the final CBAM price calculated at cost, taking into account the risks incurred by the importer, which opens up opportunities for authorized declarants with sufficient resources.
Speakers at the first CBAM Global Summit, organized by IACBAM in Prague on Thursday, elaborated on the multitude of factors related to the world's first carbon import tax.
Among them were Michael Lund, managing director of Damstahl, a Danish stainless steel distributor, who noted that companies importing CBAM products charge their balance sheets to account for future costs. They will be paid in September 2027, when it will be necessary to repay the CBAM expenses accumulated in 2026.
"In fact, we use this risk for clients and … We have attracted new customers in this segment where they either don't want to take risks or don't understand the whole point of CBAM," Lund said at the event attended by Callanish. However, it is crucial that the company has sufficient resources. "It is also important that the organization has the authority to carry out this task. This requires large amounts of data and affects all areas of your company's business," he added.
Many customers want to use the simple CBAM service at the price included in the price. "Some of our clients[want to], I think I could say that this[CBAM cost]is not a separate line in the invoice, it is included, it is calculated in the client's sale price, in fact… That the price you specify should contain the CBAM value. But that's exactly where the difficulty lies, because right now we need to calculate the amount of X, Y, how to guess the correct cost that we will pay in September 2027. Not many customers are ready to order, do it now and get the final invoice in 2027," he added.
Jan–Joost den Brinker, technical director of Dubrink, nevertheless said that some customers prefer to indicate the cost of carbon in a separate line on the invoice, "because it facilitates communication."
Dan Maleski, lead CBAM consultant at Redshaw Advisors, noted that in many jurisdictions there is no incentive to introduce carbon pricing, as it may initially slow down economic growth, especially in less developed countries. Carbon prices in existing markets differ only slightly from those in the EU.
"In what other ways