Italy ranked first among EU member states for declared imports of existing CBAM-code goods in 2025, accounting for 17.6% of the bloc’s extra-EU total, according to published figures. The ranking makes Italy a primary research target for businesses assessing trade flows, but does not establish that every major Italian industrial group is a CBAM declarant.
The EU’s total extra-EU imports of the goods reached €111.23 billion. Applying Italy’s published rounded share gives an estimated customs value of roughly €19.6 billion; the total covers a wide range of materials and includes imports from exempt origins, so it is not a direct estimate of Italy’s CBAM certificate bill.
Imports pass through complex supply chains
Northern Italy’s engineering, appliances, machinery, automotive components, building-products and metals-processing industries offer several routes for imported materials to reach final users. The relevant industrial corridors include Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, along with ports serving the Po Valley, where import logistics, manufacturing capacity and networks of small and medium-sized subcontractors coincide.
Steel coil may pass through a service centre for slitting or coating before being sold to a fabricator. Aluminium billet or primary metal may be extruded or rolled before a downstream manufacturer takes delivery. The importer of record may therefore differ from the company that sets a product’s specification or production schedule.
However, operating in these regions or processing metals does not show that a company sourced a particular CBAM-covered shipment. Identifying businesses connected to specific shipments requires matching company names with transaction-level evidence.
Shipment data needed to assess exposure
The authorised CBAM declarant has an obligation linked to embedded emissions and the applicable EU allowance price. Its ability to pass on the CBAM cost depends on price formulas, product differentiation, supply security and the purchaser’s bargaining strength. Processors with thin margins or slow contract repricing may face pressure even when their own direct CBAM filings are limited.
A useful next dataset would rank Italy’s imports by CN8 code and non-EU origin, then identify major import houses, steel service centres, extruders and documented industrial customer relationships. The analysis should distinguish material imported from outside the EU from intra-EU supplies, and separate high-volume products from those with a high price per tonne.