India’s engineering exports to China surge 123% in Apr-June

The Dollar Business Bureau

India’s engineering goods exports to China recorded a massive growth of 123% during the April-June quarter of the current fiscal. This increase according to, the the trade body Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India, is due to the huge exports of non-ferrous metals to China. 

India’s shipments of engineering goods to China stood at $629 million in the April-June quarter, compared to $282 million in the same quarter in the previous fiscal.

The growth assumes importance as India has a huge trade deficit with its neighbour, which was $46.56 billion last year as exports from the country continued to drop whereas the bilateral trade slowed down a little by 2.1% to around $71 billion, as per the data released earlier.

The Ministry of Commerce data shows that India’s total exports increased by 4.39% to $23.56 billion in the month of June.

In the April-June quarter of 2017-18, exports increased by 10.57% to $72.21 billion whereas imports rose 32.78% to $112.2 billion, resulting in a $40 billion trade deficit.

Engineering goods shipments to China aggregated $234 million in June this year, compared to $94 million in the same month a year ago.

The sharp increase was on the back of a whopping rise of 971% to $158 million in the non-ferrous metals shipments in June this year, from just $14.75 million in the same month in the previous.

During April-June quarter, exports of non-ferrous metals to China witnessed a rise of 344% to $355 million from $80 million during the same period last year.

EEPC Chairman T S Bhasin said he is hoping that bilateral trade between India and China continues to flourish.

 “China is certainly a key trading partner for India. The two economies are among the fastest growing in the world and can complement each other. A pick up in the Chinese economy is also contributing to the rising consumption of the key metals,” Bhasin said.

China and South Korea were major importers of India’s non-ferrous metals with 17% and 14.6% share, respectively, during the April-June quarter, he said.