While exporters of engineering goods are feeling the heat of the global slowdown, the product category which has taken the biggest hit is iron and steel. This category, according to EEPC India, has fallen by almost 50% to US$355 million in January 2016 against US$709 million year-on-year.
Likewise, the fall in copper and related products is down by over 47% by US$306 million to US$160 million.
Overall, as a pack, engineering exports, which accounted for nearly 23% of merchandise exports in January 2016, dropped 28.07% to US$4.824 billion from US$6.707 billion y-on-y.
“The worst thing is that such a drop has come about on a low base created by almost a similar drop in the same month last year,” said EEPC India Chairman T S Bhasin who added that the exporters had sought many more initiatives in the Union Budget.
Out of the top 25 countries, 19 recorded negative growth in the month of January 2016, while of 33 engineering products, 22 recorded contraction.