KOLKATA: Growing by well over double digit since October, 2016, India's engineering exports are likely to reach $62 billion in the fiscal 2016-17, riding on the back of revival of demand in the US and for select products like iron and steel in China, an EEPC India analysis has shown.
Encouraged by a smart recovery in engineering exports, EEPC with the support from the commerce ministry is working on a mega strategy to give a further push to these exports which involve large scale employment.
As a part of this strategy, the flagship 'International Engineering Sourcing Show' (IESS) is being held this year in Chennai between March 16 and 18 , 2017 unlike the earlier five annual editions which took place in Mumbai. “We wanted to bring the global engineering sourcing companies to the southern part of India which has emerged as a strong manufacturing base for the world supply chain,” EEPC India chairman T S Bhasin said. Over 400 global firms from 100 countries would participate in the event.
As for the outlook this fiscal and the next, Mr Bhasin said, “We stick to our view that Indian engineering exports are likely to see continuance of the uptrend on the back of revival of demand for metals and other basic material. Grand plans by President Donald Trump for significantly increasing expenditure on infrastructure would lead to the US witnessing more demand for the engineering products,” he said.
Moreover, economic slowdown in the developed regions seemed to have seen the bottom and the bounce back is expected. Weakness in emerging market currencies including rupee following the apprehension of interest rate hike in the US will also help in raising the value of exports, the EEPC India chief noted.
For the April-January period of ten months of the current fiscal, the engineering exports have touched a figure of USD 50.87 billion , far exceeding the total shipments of USD 49 billion in the entire financial year of 2015-16. The monthly shipments have now been about or above USD five billion this fiscal. For January, 2017 engineering exports aggregated USD 5.29 billion , showing an increase of over 12 per cent over the same month last fiscal.
The engineering exports witnessed positive growth for the sixth straight month in a row, though the double digit growth began from October, 2016. Substantial rise in the exports was observed in case of iron and steel exports, electrical machinery, automobiles, medical & scientific equipment , railway and transport equipment.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com