Page 50 - ie2 August 2019

OVERSIGHT

IMPORT ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING GOODS

NDIA’S engineering imports during
June 2019 were valued at $7828 million Table17: Engineering imports ($ million)
Icompared to $8890.9 million in June Month 2018-19 2019-20 Growth (%)
2018, recording negative growth of 12
percent in dollar terms. April 8139.45 8143.84 0.1
Cumulative engineering imports dur-
ing April-June 2019-20 were recorded at June 8536.0 8875.2 4.0
$24.85 billion as against $25.57 billion June 8890.89 7827.95 -12.0
during the same period last fiscal regis-
tering fall of 2.8 percent. Source: Department of Commerce, Govt of India
Engineering imports for the year Figure5: Trend in monthly engineering imports for 2019-20 vis-à-vis
2018-19 was recorded at $104.2 billion as 2018-19 ($ billion)
against $93.9 billion during 2017-18 and
$81.83 billion in 2016-17, registering a
cumulative growth of 10.9 and 11.6 per- 9.0
cent respectively. 8.9 8.9
The share of engineering imports in 8.8
India’s total merchandise imports in June
2019 is similar to that during June 2018 8.6 8.5
estimated at 19.6 percent.
The monthly engineering import fig- 8.4
ures for fiscal June 2019 vis-à-vis June
2018 is depicted in Table17 as per the 8.2 8.1 8.1
latest availability of data. Figure5 depicts $ billion
the monthly trend in engineering im- 8.0 12%
ports for June 2019 and June 2018. 7.6
7.8
Trend in two-way engineering
trade 7.6
We now present the trend in two- way
yearly trade for the engineering sector 7.4
from 2014-15 to 2018-19 as well as the 7.2
first three months of the current fiscal 2019-2020
2019-20 depicted in the Table18. 2018-19
Figure6 depicts the yearly trend in en- April May June
gineering trade from 2014-15 to 2018-19
as well as April-June 2019-20 of the cur- Source: EEPC India analysis
rent fiscal.
export as the former recorded lower de- On a cumulative basis, all these major
Conclusion cline at 2.31 percent as compared to 9.71 exported product groups saw decline in
Both merchandise as well as engineering percent decline in merchandise exports shipment other than electrical machin-
exports from India conceded drop in ex- during June 2019. This fall in exports was ery. It seems that external factors like the
ports during the month of June 2019 and led mainly by y-o-y decline in shipments US-China tariff war, protectionist policies
also on a cumulative basis during the first of major exported product groups like adopted by several developed regions like
quarter of the ongoing fiscal. However, iron and steel, aluminium and products, Europe and the US, withdrawal of GSP
it can be said that engineering exports industrial machinery, electrical machin- benefit to Indian exporters by the US, and
outperformed the broader merchandise ery, and automobiles. growing geopolitical disputes in West Asia

50 l INDIAN ENGINEERING EXPORTS l AUGUST 2019