Chennai: Saudi Arabia and Russia are among the very few countries to which engineering exports have showed positive momentum in July in an otherwise gloomy scenario.
India’s engineering exports continued to decline for the fourth month in fiscal 2023-24 as it dropped by 6.62 per cent to $8.75 billion in July 2023 from $9.37 billion in July 2022. The decline was mainly due to drop in exports of iron and steel and aluminium. While exports to major destinations, including North America, EU, ASEAN and South Asian region declined, there were a few bright spots, Saudi Arabia and Russia being two among them.
Exports to Saudi Arabia grew 73.7 per cent to $377 million in July against $217 million in the same month last year. Between April and July this year, exports grew 55.6 per cent to $1365 million against $877 million in the same period last year.
Saudi Arabia’s export of products of iron and steel grew 73 per cent to $147 million in the April-July period. The country was the top destination of automobiles (motor vehicles, cars and two and three wheelers) recording a growth of 78 per cent. Non-ferrous metals recorded 285 per cent growth to $356 million during the period against $92 million
In the case of Russia, exports grew 122 per cent to $123 million, while it grew 217 per cent to $461 million during the April-July period. This helped CIS region to see 122 per cent growth in July and 183 per cent during the four-month period.
Among the products that registered positive growth in July, copper and products grew 30 per cent, nickel and products 34 per cent and lead and products 63 per cent.
In the case of top exporting states, almost 90.2 per cent is contributed by 12 states. Within this almost 49 per cent of exports is done by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat together. END
