India’s export growth driven by the West
India’s containerised trade with the world has grown steadily, recording an overall import-export trade growth of six per cent, states the Q4 2018 trade report released by Maersk.
Increasing demand for refrigerated cargo from India coupled with improved trade relations with China, with introduction of favourable trade policies, has driven exports to grow a healthy three per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018. The demand for India-made goods such as vehicles, cereals and rice, supplemented by refrigerated cargo such as fish, seafood, vegetables and pharmaceuticals, saw maximum growth in exports. Imports maintained a stable growth of nine per cent, largely driven by substantial inflow of metals and paper.
Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia, said, “We witnessed a stable trade environment in the last quarter of 2018 due to base effects, weakening demand of goods in China, overall contraction in manufacturing around the world, and the global trade tensions between major economies.” Export growth from India was led by refrigerated cargo and agricultural commodities, especially vegetables, seafood, fruits, nuts, cereals and rice exported to countries like China, UAE, USA and The Netherlands, as well as smaller nations like Algeria. Dry cargo exports remained flat in the quarter, barring vehicles which saw double-digit growth in volumes. As a consequence of favourable trade policies, China became one of the key export markets for refrigerated cargo. It also became one of the highest contributors to the country’s export basket in the fourth quarter with a 71 per cent year-on-year increase as compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. Commenting on the healthy growth of refrigerated cargo and agro products, Ajit
Venkataraman, Managing Director, APM Terminals Inland Services South Asia, said, “One of the most crucial challenges faced by the country’s agriculture sector is food wastage. An efficient farm-to-fork cold chain network managed by a skilled workforce will help curtail this loss.” As per the report, chemicals saw a strong six per cent y-o-y growth (compared to Q4 2017) in exports from North India. The highest commodity to see unprecedented growth was seafood, with fish being the highest exported commodity to China followed by a double-digit growth in exports to the USA. Furthermore, India also witnessed a 74 per cent y-o-y increase in its pharmaceutical exports to the USA, compared to the same period in 2017.