The leaked EU CBAM provisional benchmark published in December 2025 contains the single most commercially important number for India’s aluminium industry: the secondary aluminium CBAM benchmark is 0.139 tCO₂e per tonne — versus 1.464 tCO₂e per tonne for primary aluminium. When more than 50% of aluminium is sourced from scrap, the secondary production route applies. India’s secondary aluminium industry, which produces at approximately 0.3-1.3 tCO₂/t depending on the energy source used for remelting, sits well below both the secondary benchmark and the primary benchmark. At EU ETS prices of approximately €60/tCO₂e, this means an Indian secondary aluminium exporter to the EU pays approximately €8/t in CBAM certificates while an Indian primary coal-CPP aluminium producer paying the default rate faces certificates at approximately €800/t. The CBAM gap between primary and secondary aluminium is the largest carbon cost differential in any CBAM-covered product category. This article maps India’s secondary aluminium sector — production volumes, scrap supply dynamics, energy consumption advantage, CCTS targets (finally gazette-notified on January 16, 2026), and the investment case for scaling secondary production as the CBAM advantage crystallises commercially from the first annual declaration in May 2027.