The Reserve Bank Governor, Dr. C. Rangarajan, has hinted at a hike in interest rate on export credit. With the deposit rate up at 12 per cent, it may not be possible for banks to continue with the 13 per cent charged for exporters, he said on Thursday at the first meeting of the reconstituted Board of Trade. The Commerce Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram presided. Replying to questions from industry, Dr. Rangarajan and Mr. D. Basu, the Chairman of State Bank of India, said there were no problems in the availability of credit to exporters. The banking sector was planning to set up 100 branches exclusively for small-scale exporters, for which 22 “export centres” had been identified.

SRF acquires Ceat’s tyre cord unit

SRF Ltd is set to acquire the nylon tyre cord division of Ceat Ltd. Located at Malanpur, near Gwalior, the plant has an installed capacity of 10,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of nylon tyre cord yarn and 6,500 tpa of nylon tyre cord fabric. The cost of the acquisition is put at Rs. 325 crores. SRF produces about 11,000 tpa of nylon tyre cord fabric, giving it a market share of 20 per cent. With the acquisition, the company will have the largest share of the market. The company has been exporting nylon tyre cord from its Madras plant.

Core sector growth rate up

Barring coal and railway freight traffic, all other infrastructure sector industries have registered surge in growth rates during fiscal 1994-95. According to the Finance Ministry’s latest Monthly Economic Report for May, electricity generation in 1994-95, at 351.02 billion units, stood 8.5 per cent higher than the previous year’s level of 323.53 billion units.

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