Iron & Steel and the Digital Product Passport.
Iron and steel are priority intermediate products under the first ESPR working plan, with an indicative 2026 timeline for adoption of measures.
Data worth organising now
- Product grade, standard and stable identifiers
- Producer and production-site information
- Material and recycled-content data where required
- Environmental and carbon-related source data
- Declarations, certificates and test evidence
Preparation workflow
Define product level
Decide how grade, dimensions, batch/heat and customer-specific product identifiers map to your source systems.
Unify evidence
Link mill certificates, declarations and environmental records to structured product records.
Align with CBAM data
Where relevant, keep carbon and origin data reusable across CBAM and future ESPR/DPP workflows without treating them as the same regime.
Why early preparation matters
When a final product-specific measure arrives, the difficult part is often not generating a QR code. It is locating reliable data across suppliers, engineering, compliance, ERP/PIM systems and product documentation. A reusable product-data model reduces that implementation risk.
Official sources
Frequently asked questions
Does every iron & steel product need a DPP today?
The 2026 working-plan timeline is an indicative adoption timeline, not a blanket statement that every steel product already needs a DPP today.
What should companies prepare now?
Start with clean product identifiers, supplier data ownership, materials/composition, technical and compliance records, and a structure that can be mapped to future product-specific DPP fields.
Is the indicative ESPR timeline a legal deadline?
No. The working-plan timeline is an indicative adoption timeline for measures. The binding obligations and application dates come from the final delegated act or other applicable EU legislation.
Last reviewed: September 2026. Indicative working-plan dates are not substitutes for final legal application dates.