In January 2026, the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) officially entered its taxation implementation phase, turning compliance warnings during the transition period into rigid cost expenditures. The lock manufacturing industry exporting to the EU has become one of the most directly impacted sectors.

The high carbon footprint of traditional metal processing processes is continuously squeezing the profitability of lock manufacturers. Driven by the full-chain transmission of CBAM carbon costs, the overall cost of lock products has risen by 15%-22%, and the industry’s profit margin continues to narrow.

How can lock manufacturers meet CBAM compliance requirements while preserving and even expanding their profit margins? The large-scale application of Metal Injection Molding (MIM) technology is exactly the key to breaking this dilemma.

Three Core Reasons for the Erosion of Lock Manufacturers’ Profits by CBAM

The loss of profits for lock manufacturers does not stem from a single carbon cost expenditure, but from three structural shortcomings of traditional manufacturing processes, which are continuously amplified under CBAM rules:

1. Rigid Carbon Costs Brought by High Carbon Footprint

In the production of traditional precision lock components (lock cylinders, lock bolts, transmission mechanisms), the raw material utilization rate is generally only 40%-60%. The full-chain processing of metal scrap generates a large amount of hidden carbon emissions; the energy consumption of multiple machining and heat treatment processes remains high, resulting in the carbon footprint per unit product far exceeding the CBAM benchmark threshold. The carbon costs incurred by the excess part directly erode 12%-18% of revenue.

2. High Loss Costs Brought by Multi-Process Machining

Complex lock components need to go through more than a dozen stamping, cutting and polishing processes, resulting in fast mold wear, large fluctuations in yield rate, and persistently high labor, rework and scrap costs. The already compressed profit margin of 8%-12% can easily break through the break-even point when superimposed with carbon costs.

3. Compliance and Market Access Risks Brought by Difficult Carbon Traceability

Traditional supply chains adopt decentralized processing across multiple links, making it extremely difficult to trace the carbon footprint of the entire process. Once the declared data fails to meet the standards, enterprises will not only face high fines from the EU, but also may lose their access to the EU market, bringing incalculable hidden compliance costs and market risks.

MIM Technology: Three Core Advantages to Lock in Up to 30% Profit Margin

MIM process is a near-net-shape forming technology that introduces modern plastic injection molding technology into the field of powder metallurgy. It can form complex and high-precision metal parts in one step, solving the pain points of traditional processes at the root, and each advantage can be directly transformed into realizable profits.

60%-70% Direct Reduction in Carbon Footprint, Cutting Rigid Carbon Costs

This is the core advantage of MIM technology to help lock manufacturers preserve profits:

• The raw material utilization rate can reach more than 98%, with almost no production waste, eliminating hidden carbon emissions from raw material mining and waste recycling at the source, and greatly reducing the full-chain carbon footprint;
• One-step forming of complex structures eliminates more than 80% of subsequent machining processes, greatly reducing production energy consumption and carbon emissions from heat treatment. The full-lifecycle carbon footprint per unit product is 60%-70% lower than that of traditional processes, far below the CBAM benchmark threshold, eliminating the need to pay excess carbon costs, and even forming a surplus of carbon assets in some scenarios;
• Full-process closed-loop production with fully traceable carbon footprint data, fully complying with CBAM declaration requirements, and completely avoiding compliance fines and market access risks.

10%-15% Reduction in Manufacturing Costs, Increasing Core Profits

While cutting carbon costs, MIM technology can further reduce costs from the production end, providing a second layer of protection for profits:

• Complex precision components such as lock cylinders, lock bolts and transmission gears can be formed in one step through molds without secondary cutting processing. The mass production efficiency of complex precision parts can reach more than 5 times that of traditional machining, and labor costs are reduced by 70%;
• The yield rate is stable at more than 98% under mass production, much higher than the average level of about 85% of traditional processes, greatly reducing scrap and rework loss costs;
• The product dimensional accuracy can reach ±0.03mm, and the wear resistance, rust prevention and impact resistance are better than those produced by traditional processes, greatly reducing after-sales warranty costs and further releasing profit space.

Green Premium + High-End Orders, Opening up Incremental Profit Space

In addition to cost reduction, MIM technology can also help lock manufacturers increase revenue and open up new profit growth points:

• Low-carbon products fully fit the EU’s green consumption trend and brand ESG requirements, can obtain a 5%-10% green premium, and meet the low-carbon procurement access threshold of large supermarkets, commercial real estate and security projects, so as to obtain more high value-added orders;
• Precision components formed by MIM can realize complex structural designs that cannot be completed by traditional processes, greatly improving the anti-theft performance, service life and user experience of locks, creating differentiated core competitiveness and getting rid of the low-price involution in the industry.

With the superposition of the above three advantages, MIM technology can help lock manufacturers achieve 15%-20% carbon cost reduction, and simultaneously reduce the comprehensive manufacturing cost by 10%-15%. The combination of the two optimizations can lock in a maximum of 30% of the core profit margin, and even achieve a contrarian growth in profits.

Yibi Precision: MIM Solution Service Provider for Lock Manufacturers’ CBAM Compliance

As a global service provider with 16 years of in-depth experience in MIM technology, Yibi Precision has built a complete low-carbon manufacturing system covering “material R&D – mold design – large-scale production – full-process carbon footprint traceability”, and specially creates MIM solutions adapted to CBAM compliance requirements for the lock industry.

At present, Yibi Precision’s MIM process has achieved:

• For standardized precision components such as lock cylinders and lock bolts, the raw material utilization rate is stable at more than 98%, full-process closed-loop production is realized, and a complete supporting carbon footprint traceability system is provided, which can directly provide the full-chain carbon emission data required for CBAM declaration;
• The full-lifecycle carbon footprint of the product is 68% lower than that of traditional multi-process CNC machining, far below the CBAM benchmark threshold of the EU’s local industry, helping customers eliminate excess carbon costs at the source;
• The yield rate is stable at more than 98.5% under mass production, and the comprehensive manufacturing cost is reduced by more than 12% compared with traditional processes. It has helped more than 20 global lock brands achieve low-carbon transformation, preserve core profits under CBAM rules, and achieve double growth in orders and profits.

Conclusion

Many lock manufacturers regard CBAM as a trade barrier, but its essence is an inevitable trend of the global manufacturing industry’s green and low-carbon transformation.

Passively responding to carbon costs will only continue to fall into the passive situation of profit compression; while actively deploying green manufacturing technology can transform compliance requirements into differentiated core competitiveness.

What MIM technology brings is never just a short-term compliance solution to cope with CBAM, but a long-term core support for lock manufacturers to achieve cost reduction, quality improvement and revenue growth in the low-carbon era.