Engineering exports in October saw an increase of $ 3.1 billion on year in value terms to $ 11.2 billion and more than half of it is accounted for by exports by the shipping and aircraft products, according to the commerce ministry data.
Exports under the head of ships, boats and floating products and parts went up by 1400% on year in October to $ 1.09 billion from $ 72.8 million in the same month last year. Similarly exports of aircraft and related products increased 407% on year in October to $ 666.5 million.
“Apart from exports of parts for aircraft and ships the exports under this head include earnings from repairs, maintenance and overhaul of vessels and aircraft,” chairman of Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) Pankaj Chadha said.
Another major contributor for the bump up in engineering exports in October was iron and steel and their products. Exports from the sector increased 22% on year to $ 1.73 billion.
During October the exports by the engineering sector increased by 38.5% on year to $ 11.19 billion. This led to an increase in share of the engineering sector to overall exports to 28.72% from 24.16% in the same month last year. The government has set a target of $ 300 billion of engineering exports by 2030 when overall merchandise exports will touch $ 1 trillion.
This year engineering exports are expected to touch $ 125 billion, up from $ 109 billion in 2023-24, Chadha said. So far in April-October engineering exports have been $ 66.59 billion which is 8.25% more than last year.
Among countries, exports to Singapore have shown maximum growth of 572 % in October to $ 1.23 billion. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the second in terms of growth with engineering exports growing at 137% to $ 825.2 million. The jump in exports to Singapore can be attributed to the earnings from repair and overhaul of ships.
In April-October exports to Singapore were up 67% on year to $ 3.1 billion while to UAE the growth in engineering goods shipments was 49% to $ 4.5 billion. The US remains the biggest market for engineering goods from India growing at 16% on year in October to $ 1.6 billion. In April-October exports to the US increased 6% to $ 10.7 billion. UAE is number two followed by Singapore.
Among regions, exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) increased 137% in October to $ 1.9 billion in October while for April-October growth was 14% to $ 7.8 billion. To the European Union exports in October rose 41% to $ 1.9 billion and West Asia and North Africa (WANA) the exports were up 57% to $ 1.7 billion.
Engineering exports to other key markets such as Germany, the UK, China, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, France, Indonesia, and Bangladesh were also positive last month.
In October, as many as 33 out of 34 engineering panels witnessed positive year-on-year growth. Only exports of office equipment declined by merely 1% during this period.
On a cumulative basis, 27 out of 34 engineering panels recorded positive growth and the remaining 7 engineering panels including iron and steel, some non-ferrous sectors including copper, aluminium, and zinc products, and office equipment recorded negative growth during the April-October.