Engineering goods exporters are in dire straits with exports having dropped more than 50% in several key locations that include China, Malaysia, and the UAE.
According to EEPC India, exports to Malaysia, for instance, which has been one of the top 25 destinations, have fallen by more than 90%, almost wiping out this market in January 2016 over the same month last year.
For January 2016, shipments to Malaysia plummeted to mere US$78.22 million from a sizeable US$830.88 million a year ago. “When close to a billion dollars disappear from a single market in just one of the sectors, the depth of the problems can be gauged,” EEPC India Chairman T S Bhasin said in a statement.
Likewise, data shows that engineering exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the second largest market after the US, dropped by more than half (-51.16%) to US$484.12 million from US$991.17 million year-on-year.
India’s engineering consignments dropped 43.88% to US$803.39 million from US$ 1.43 billion y-o-y to the Middle East and West Asia, regions which have been witnessing their own serious problems because of a significant downturn in crude oil prices.
Exports to China, which was considered an engine of global economic growth and a major consumer of global metals and products, dropped 36.35% to US$124 million in January this year against US$195 million in the same month last year.