Export drops 1.12% to USD 23 billion in October; trade deficit balloons

Export declined by 1.12 percent to USD 23 billion in October, retreating from a six-month high growth in September as shipments of textiles, pharmaceuticals, leather and gems and jewellery fell, official data showed.
Imports, however, grew by 7.6 percent to USD 37.11 billion in October from USD 34.5 billion in the year-ago month, the commerce ministry data released on Tuesday showed.
Trade deficit widened to USD 14 billion during the month under review as against USD 11.13 billion in October 2016.

Gold imports dipped by 16 per cent to USD 2.94 billion last month.

Oil and non-oil imports grew by 27.89 per cent and 2.19 per cent to USD 9.28 billion and USD 27.83 billion, respectively in October.

Cumulative exports during April-October 2017-18 increased by 9.62 per cent to USD 170.28 billion, while imports grew by 22.21 per cent to USD 256.43 billion, leaving a trade deficit of USD 86.14 billion.

In October, petroleum, engineering and chemicals exports grew by 14.74 per cent, 11.77 per cent and 22.29 per cent, respectively.
India's export had soared by 25.67 per cent to USD 28.61 billion in September, logging its highest growth in last six months on the back of expansion in shipments of chemicals, petroleum and engineering products.

Coal imports decline to 192 million tonnes in FY17

Import of coal saw a decline of 6.37 percent to 191.95 million tonnes (MT) in 2016-17 on higher production by Coal India (CIL) that saw the country move to a regime of surplus coal.

Comparatively, in 2015-16 fiscal, coal imports stood at 203.95 MT, as per official data by the government.

"On enhanced production by Coal India (CIL), the country has moved from a regime of coal scarcity to a coal surplus situation," the document said.

As against the demand of 884.87 MT of coal, the total domestic production stood at 659.27 MT, it said.

The Centre has announced plans to boost CIL's annual production to the level of 1 billion tonnes by 2019 to meet the growing fuel demand.

Under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisional) Act, 2015, 30 mines have been allocated to private sector companies by way of auction for specified end uses till date.

The ongoing fiscal also shows a declining trend, especially of thermal coal.

Thermal and steam coal imports have fallen 17.37 per cent at the top 12 major ports to 29.82 MT during April-July this fiscal, according to the Indian Ports Association (IPA).

The ports, under the control of the Centre, had handled 36.09 MT of thermal and steam coal during the same period of the previous fiscal.

Thermal coal is the mainstay of India's energy programme as 70 per cent of power generation is dependent on the dry fuel.

Handling of coking coal, used mainly in steel-making, has also dipped 4.45 per cent to 16.51 MT, as per the latest data released by the IPA.

These ports had handled 17.27 MT of coking coal in April-July period of 2016-17.

Together, they handled 46.33 MT coal during April-July this fiscal as against 53.36 MT in the same period of the previous year.

India is the third-largest producer of coal after China and the US and has 299 billion tonnes of resources and 123 billion tonnes of proven reserves, which may last for over 100 years.

The country has 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V.O. Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) — which handle approximately 65 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.

Imports of Coal