Engineering goods fuel India export to record high in March

Four major commodity groups have fuelled India’s export surge in March 2021 leading to a sharp jump of over 58% on a year-on-year basis, according to an analysis by the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (Eepc India) mentioned, reports ETV Bharat's Krishnanand Tripathi. The export of engineering goods and machinery recorded an impressive growth of over 70% in March, the data showed.

New Delhi: India’s total merchandise export in March was $34 billion as compared to $21.49 billion in March 2020, which is a sharp increase of 58.23%. This is the highest ever monthly growth recorded in the country’s merchandise export.

“In a major rebound of trade since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, engineering goods exported from the country recorded an impressive growth in March 2021,” said the council, adding that due to surge in the exports last month the international trade could reach pre-Covid levels sooner than expected.

"The strong growth in exports of engineering goods in the month of March suggests a bright outlook for the sector, but one needs to be cautious before arriving at any conclusion on the basis of short term surge," said Mahesh Desai, Chairman of Eepc India.

The sudden jump in outbound shipments offers hope of more sustained growth in the sector in the coming months as the country fights a tough battle against a second wave of the deadly virus which has killed more than 1,63,000 Indians.

Experts, however, believe that despite the second wave of the virus in the country, global trade will not be hit as the country has launched the largest ever vaccination drive and had already administered the vaccine to 6.88 crore people so far. Also, steps are being taken to boost demand and support business activity along with other major economies.

"Despite downside risks in view of new virus strains and possible disruption in the trade we remain optimistic given that the government has taken a number of measures to make India manufacturing hub and export competitive," Desai told ETV Bharat.

India’s largest export

Engineering items such as machinery, automobile, automobile components account for nearly one-fourth of the country’s total goods export. The engineering export sector is also the biggest forex earner for the country and employs nearly 4 million skilled and semi-skilled workers.