India is unlikely to meet even the lowered engineering exports target of $60 billion for the current fiscal due to slowdown in the key western markets such as the US and Europe.
“Overall it is deficient but more than 90 per cent of the last year’s achievement will be done. We are trying about thinking in terms of $55-57 billion (in 2012-13),” Engineering Export Promotion Council Executive Director B. Sarkar told PTI here.
The council has set a target of $72 billion at the start of the current financial year but later revised it downwards to $60 billion keeping in view of the decline in demand from the traditional markets.
“We are very apprehensive about the present trend going now because you know our main destinations have been to USA and European Union. Both these places are suffering. So our exports are also suffering,” Sarkar said.
The US and Europe together account for over 60 per cent of India’s total engineering exports.
During April-November 2012, engineering exports dropped 7.5 per cent to $36 billion compared to the same period last year.
The decline in engineering exports is in sync with the country’s overall exports that fell 5.95 per cent year-on-year to $189.2 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal.
Engineering exports include transport equipment, capital goods, other machinery/equipment and light engineering products like castings, forgings and fasteners.
During 2011-12, engineering exports grew 17 per cent to $58.2 billion compared with $49.7 billion in the previous fiscal.