CBAM for Fastener Importers: Screws, Bolts and Nuts (7318)

Fasteners (screws, bolts, nuts, washers, rivets, and similar articles) fall under CN code 7318, which is within the scope of UK CBAM for iron and steel. If you import fasteners from outside the UK, those imports count toward the £50,000 annual threshold, and once exceeded, every fastener shipment carries CBAM liability.

Many fastener importers are caught without realising because fasteners are small, low-value-per-unit items that importers do not typically think of as "steel products." A box of screws costs a few pounds. But when you add up a year's worth of fastener imports across multiple SKUs and shipments, the total can easily exceed £50,000.

The largest fastener-importing industries include construction (structural fasteners, self-tapping screws, anchor bolts), automotive (specialised bolts and nuts for vehicle assembly), manufacturing (general-purpose fasteners for assembly operations), and distribution (companies that import and resell a wide range of fasteners). All of these are caught by CBAM.

The most important concept for fastener importers is precursor emissions. A fastener's embedded emissions are dominated by the steel used to make it, not by the fastener-forming process. The steel precursor emissions are often several times larger than the manufacturing emissions.

A typical steel fastener has embedded emissions of approximately 1.2 to 2.5 tonnes CO2e per tonne of fasteners, depending on the steel production route (BF-BOF vs EAF). The fastener-forming process adds perhaps 0.1 to 0.3 tonnes CO2e. The steel precursor is the dominant component, and this is what fastener importers must focus on when requesting supplier data.

Many fastener suppliers are not steel producers — they buy steel rod from a mill and form fasteners from it. This means the fastener supplier may not have direct emissions data for the steel precursor. You may need to ask your fastener supplier to obtain the steel mill's emissions data, or you may need to use default values for the precursor component while using the supplier's data for the forming process.

When requesting CBAM data from your fastener supplier, be specific about what you need. Request: total embedded emissions per tonne of fasteners (kg CO2e per tonne), with a breakdown into steel precursor emissions and fastener manufacturing emissions separately. Ask whether the fastener steel is produced by BF-BOF or EAF route, and what proportion of scrap is used. Request the Scope 1 and Scope 2 split, and ask whether any carbon price has been paid in the country of production.

If your supplier cannot provide the precursor steel emissions, ask them for the name and location of the steel mill they source from. You may be able to obtain the steel emissions data directly from the mill or from published EPDs. Many large steel mills publish environmental product declarations that provide the data you need.

Oremly's fastener importer module handles the precursor calculation automatically. It identifies fastener imports under 7318, requests the right data from your supplier, and calculates the combined precursor-plus-processing emissions using the correct methodology for steel products.

If you import fasteners, start preparing now: identify all your fastener SKUs that fall under CN 7318, calculate your total annual import value of those fasteners to check whether you exceed £50,000, identify every fastener supplier and their steel mill source, send CBAM data requests to each supplier with specific reference to steel precursor data, and track import volumes and emissions data from 1 January 2027.

The key advantage for fastener importers is that the products are homogeneous. Once you have an emissions intensity figure for a specific fastener type from a specific supplier, it applies to all subsequent shipments of that product (until the supplier's production process changes). This makes data collection more efficient than for diverse product ranges.

Many fastener distributors import hundreds of SKUs. Oremly handles this at scale: import your product catalogue, map each SKU to its CN code, link supplier data to each product, and the system calculates emissions for every shipment automatically. The first setup takes a few hours; after that, each new shipment is processed in seconds.