CBAM Declaration Software for Importers and Installations
Formist drafts and validates the two documents CBAM actually requires. For EU importers, it prepares a CBAM declaration package, checked against the EU’s own CBAM XSD (version 18.30). For non-EU installations exporting into the EU, it completes the CBAM Communication Template Excel workbook, with precursor tracking and carbon price deduction. The EU has no submission API for either: you always download the result and submit it yourself.
How the declaration gets built
The same four steps run whether you are an EU importer or a non-EU exporting installation, sourced from the cbam-declarant and cbam-installation skills behind this page.
- You provide the inputs
Commercial invoices, your production route (for example, a blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace steel line), fuel and electricity consumption, precursor material data, and any carbon price you already paid at origin.
- Formist calculates direct and indirect emissions
It works through the EU methodology step by step: direct process and combustion emissions from your production route, then indirect emissions from the electricity you consumed, using the grid emission factor for your country.
- It reaches your specific embedded emissions
Direct plus indirect plus any precursor material emissions, divided by production quantity, gives the specific embedded emissions figure the rest of the filing is built on.
- You review, then Formist drafts the file
Formist shows the calculation and the documents it read in the conversation. Once you approve it, it drafts the CBAM declaration XML or the Communication Template, checked against the EU’s own schema.
What the tool produces
An XML file checked against the EU’s own CBAM XSD (version 18.30), wrapped in a ZIP with a validation report, generated from commercial invoices, supplier emission data and CN code mappings. You download and upload it yourself on the CBAM Registry portal.
A filled Excel workbook compliant with EU Regulation 2023/956 and Implementing Regulation 2025/2547, for a non-EU installation to share verified embedded emission data with its EU importers.
What the tool covers
Iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, hydrogen and electricity, the sectors currently in scope of CBAM.
For complex goods, the embedded emissions of input materials are tracked back through the value chain and linked to the final good.
A carbon price effectively paid in the country of origin, such as China ETS allowances, can be deducted from the CBAM certificate obligation when documented.
Both Scope 1 process emissions and Scope 2 emissions from consumed electricity are calculated for most CBAM goods.
A worked example: a 5,000 tonne steel import
Formist’s cbam-installation skill runs a calculation like this one, for a blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steel installation in China shipping 5,000 tonnes of crude steel to an EU importer. The figures below are the skill’s own illustrative example, not your shipment.
- Annual production
- 100,000 t crude steel
- Direct emissions (coke, coal injection, limestone, pig iron)
- about 173,500 t CO2e a year
- Indirect emissions (45,000 MWh, North China grid factor)
- about 39,794 t CO2e a year
- Specific embedded emissions
- about 2.13 t CO2e per tonne of steel
- Embedded emissions for this 5,000 t shipment
- about 10,650 t CO2e
- 2026 EU ETS free allocation for this benchmark (97.5% still free)
- about 6,084 t CO2e
- CBAM certificates needed, before any carbon price deduction
- about 4,566 t CO2e, about 312,771 EUR at the Q3 2026 EU ETS price of 68.50 EUR
A documented carbon price actually paid at origin, such as a China ETS allowance surrendered for compliance, reduces this further. The figure above stops short of that deduction, since it depends on evidence only the installation holds.
What stays yours
Formist drafts and validates the package. You log into the CBAM Registry portal with your own EU Login identity and upload and submit it yourself; the EU has no submission API Formist could use on your behalf.
Most goods need embedded emissions verified by an EU accredited verifier, and a carbon price deduction needs documentary evidence, such as proof of payment or a compliance certificate. Formist calculates from the data and evidence you give it; it does not verify or notarise anything itself.
When data is missing
Formist asks you for it rather than guessing. Identity numbers, emission factors and amounts are never estimated to fill a gap.
The EU’s published default values cover a narrow set of product and country combinations. Outside that set, Formist says so directly and asks for your actual data rather than applying a default that was never published for your case.
If less than 80% of a complex good’s embedded emissions come from measured data, the EU’s own rule requires the whole product to fall back to default values; Formist applies that rule rather than mixing measured and default figures below the threshold.
Frequently asked questions
When is the next CBAM declaration due?
The transitional period’s quarterly reports ended with the 2025 Q4 period, so there is no quarterly filing left to make. The definitive period’s annual declaration module is scheduled to open in 2027, with a first deadline of 30 September 2027; the EU had not yet published that module’s format as of late 2026.
Who is legally responsible for filing, the importer or the exporter?
The EU importer, or their indirect customs representative, is legally responsible. Non-EU exporters have no direct obligation, but in practice most of the data collection falls on them, since the importer needs production level emission data only the supplier has.
Do I need third party verified emission data?
During the transitional phase, verification was not required and EU default values could be used. From the definitive period (1 January 2026), actual emissions data verified by an EU accredited verifier is mandatory for most goods.
What happens if a declaration is incomplete or incorrect?
Penalties range from 10 to 50 EUR per tonne of undeclared embedded emissions. Falsified data can trigger fines up to three times the CBAM certificate price.
Does Formist submit the declaration to the EU for me?
No. The EU has no submission API for CBAM. Formist drafts the package and checks it against the EU’s own CBAM XSD (version 18.30); you download it and upload it yourself, logged into the CBAM Registry portal with your own EU Login identity.
Draft your next CBAM declaration
Tell us whether you are filing as an EU importer or a non-EU exporting installation, and we will walk you through it with your own documents.