Europe Tightens the Paper Trail on Steel: Melt-and-Pour Origin Now Mandatory at the Border
Published on 10/09/2026 at 08:01 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Importers bringing steel into the European Union can no longer leave the question of where a product was actually melted and cast to guesswork. As of 1 October 2026, customs declarations for affected goods must state the melt-and-pour country using dedicated EU codes — a change Brussels designed to close the gaps in supply-chain tracing across the bloc's steel trade.
The requirement rests on Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1963. Officials have been explicit that these origin proofs are a separate exercise from emissions reporting under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM); the two obligations run on parallel tracks and must not be conflated.
First melt defines origin — and later processing does not change it
Under the Commission's reading, the country of origin is where the steel was first melted and poured. Any downstream processing in another jurisdiction leaves that designation untouched. Both importers and exporters carry the burden of keeping the relevant origin and emissions documentation on file for each consignment.
Germany's customs administration has already moved to implement the rules. In its ATLAS information notice 1007/26, the Generalzolldirektion — the country's central customs authority — flagged that TARIC measure 764, which governs surveillance of the melt-and-pour country for certain steel goods, has applied since 1 October 2026.
Mill test certificates become the standard, with a grace period until 2027
A mill test certificate (MTC) carrying batch and origin details has been mandatory for import declarations since 1 October 2026. The document must state the country of origin and the melt number as binding information. Until 1 October 2027, supplementary proofs are still accepted on a transitional basis. Once that window closes, the full certification regime takes over: from October 2027, only the mill test certificate will be recognised.
These measures sit alongside a broader set of trade-policy instruments. Regulation (EU) 2026/1384 entered into force on 25 June 2026, replacing the earlier Regulation (EU) 2019/159.
The tariff quotas and additional duties it sets out have applied since 1 July 2026. A duty-free annual quota of 18,345,900 tonnes is allocated across 28 steel product groups. Imports exceeding that volume face an additional duty of 50%, up from the previous 25%.
Separately, provisional safeguard duties on certain grain-oriented silicon electrical steel flat products have been in place since 25 September 2026, according to the Generalzolldirektion's ATLAS information notice 1005/26. Declarations in this segment involve so-called first-come, first-served quotas and the TNEO unit of measurement.
What companies need to do before the next compliance check
Meeting the new regime means reworking internal processes. Germany Trade & Invest, the country's foreign trade and investment agency, advises companies to take a hard look at their master data, supplier declarations and the customs software they rely on.
There is also a forward-looking item on the agenda. According to Germany Trade & Invest, the European Commission plans an extension review by 31 December 2026 to assess whether the obligations should be broadened to cover downstream steel products.
