Singapore, China Emerge as the only Positions for Engineering Goods Exports, says EEPC

· Massive Contraction of Demand in US, EU, SAARC, UAE Seen

Only Singapore and China, out of top 25 destinations of India's engineering exports, could manage a positive year- on- year growth in April, 2020 while the rest conceded massive contraction up to 91 per cent in some cases, due to a hugely disruptive impact of Covid-19, an EEPC India analysis has shown.

In a reflection of the scale of trade disruption, a city-nation of Singapore replaced the US as the number one destination for Indian engineering exports. The second position, just one more positive market, was China, the analysis noted.

''The US has been our number one market, while the UAE, European Union countries and some our neighbouring SAARC nations were major destinations for us. But then, numbers have been turned on their head, under the Covid-19 impact. Even as the world economies are trying hard to re-open, it would be long before exports can reach a level of re-assurance, "EEPC India Chairman Mr Ravi Sehgal said.

He said, the engineering exports, which largely comprise manufacturing, face both internal and external challenges with the small and medium enterprises finding it even more difficult to stay afloat. Raw material shortages-essentially steel, non-availability of work force, unviable fixed costs and disruptions in the logistics are among the major domestic problems. On the other hand, restrictions on movement of people and goods, rising trade barriers and geo-political issues remain challenging areas, he said.

As for the monthly data, annualised growth in India’s engineering exports to Singapore was over 95 per cent during April 2020 to USD 553 million from USD 283 million in April 2019.

On the other hand, engineering shipments to the US, the traditional top Indian market, nosedived by close to 75 per cent to USD 222 million during the month under review from USD 883 million in the comparable month of 2019.

The maximum damage of lockdown and restrictions was seen in despatches to Nepal, by as much as 91 per cent, from USD 222 million to mere USD 19 million. A similar picture was visible with regard to Mexico, dropping year on year by 91 per cent from USD 189 million to USD 17 million.

However, India’s engineering exports to China registered a positive monthly growth of more than 19 per cent to USD 173 million in April, 2020 from USD 145 million.

Total engineering exports conceded 63.93 per cent decline in April, this fiscal to USD 2.31 billion from USD 6.41 billion in the corresponding month of 2019.