Engineering goods exporters have expressed concern over their future prospects as demand in major markets including the US, UAE, Germany, the UK, Singapore, Italy and China is on a decline due to the impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus.

Exporters’ body EEPC India has asked the government for support to tide over the difficult times and has said that without help the small and medium enterprises would find it difficult to survive.

“Indian exporters find themselves in a state of turmoil as trade in the country’s top destinations is paralysed, making it imperative for urgent relief measures for the exporting industries, the EEPC has said.

The US was the top destination for engineering exports for the April-January 2019-20 at $9.87 billion, followed by the UAE at $3.58 billion, Germany at $2.56 billion, the UK at $2.26 billion, China at $1.85 billion, Italy at $1.65 billion, Korea at $1.62 billion and France at $1.13 billion.

“Trade is crippled in most of these destinations due to a near collapse of global supply chain even as the cargo movement has stopped. The warehousing capacity is over-stretched with severe blocking of export finance. The international shipping lines are affected. Even the urgent and less bulky cargo through air routes are paralysed with the airlines trimming their operations,” said EEPC Chairman Ravi Sehgal.

Exporters, especially those in the highly labour-intensive SMEs, need immediate fiscal relief and credit flow to keep their work force and essential plant and machinery in running operations, he said.

India’s exports in the April-February 2019-20 period was 1.5 per cent lower than the same period last year at $292.91 billion.

Last week, the Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal organised a meeting of export promotion of councils and industry representatives to discuss the impact of the coronavirus on exports and imports and also look at the opportunities.

Coronavirus cases world over has crossed 1,73,000 with the number of dead at over 6,600. The rate of recovery is considerably high at about 92 per cent with more than 77,700 persons having recovered and discharged.

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