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Petroleum product exports rose 7.7% at $60.3 billion in 2012-13 from $56.04 billion in the previous year, enabling India's exports to cross $300 billion. However, these items could not arrest a contraction of India's overall exports by 1.8% from $306 billion in 2011-12 as the country's largest exporting partner European Union crawled to recover from an economic downturn.
There were only six product categories that accounted for exports realisation of over $10 billion each last year. Of these, four recorded growth, while the remaining two contracted in in 2012-13 year-on year, according to figures compiled by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS).
Exports of drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, facing rough weather in recent times, increased 10.5% to $14.6 billion from $13.2 billion in 2011-12. This accounted for almost 5% of the total exports figure in 2012-13.
In the capital goods sector, machinery and instruments exports went up by 6% to $15.2 billion from $14.3 billion last year. Metal exports too moved up 5% to $10 billion in 2012-13 from $9.5 billion in the previous year.
However, outbound shipments of transport equipment fell 14% at $43.4 billion in 2012-13. High-value gems and jewellery exports also saw a contraction by over three% at $43.4 billion in 2012-13.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) director general and CEO Ajay Sahai attributed the decline in India's exports to fall in high value items. ''The export of high value products like gems and jewellery has seen a declining trend. They were exported in good numbers earlier", he said.
Among those fetching less than $10 billion, engineering goods rose over 13% at $347 million in 2012-13. Electronic goods, on the other hand, saw their exports coming down by nine% at $8.05 billion.
The outbound shipments of computer software in physical form contracted 25% to $386 million.
A significant laggard among India's traditional export items were textiles. Exports of cotton readymade garments declined to $8.4 billion in 2012-13 from $9.6 in the previous year, silk readymade to $238 million from $266.6 million and exports of readymade wool fell to $296 million from $350 million.
"Textile including garments is one of the sectors we are not doing well when it comes to export of high value products and so is the case with engineering goods. They were exported in good numbers earlier," Sahai said.
Equally significant was the fall in iron ore exports, which declined 65% to $1.6 billion in 2012-13 from $4.6 billion a year ago because of the impact of the court orders on ore mining.
"As far as export of iron ore is concerned, it is a conscious policy of the Government to discourage the export of iron ore and hence, the decline is not much relevance to India now. It is time to look at value added products rather than iron ore. We should start exporting more iron and steel rather than iron ore. Everybody has to move up the value chain," the FIEO Director General said.
Exports of semi-finished iron and steel declined moderately to stand at $ five billion in 2012-13 against $5.2 billion in the previous year.
| Export value of principal commodities in terms of billion dollars | |||
| Commodities | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | % increase/ decrease |
| Petroleum: Crude & Products | 56 | 60.3 | 7.7 |
| Gems and Jewellery | 44.9 | 43.4 | (-) 3.4 |
| Transport Equipment | 21.4 | 18.4 | (-) 14 |
| Machinery and Instruments | 14.3 | 15.2 | 6.5 |
| Drugs, pharma, fine chemicals | 13.2 | 14.6 | 10.5 |
| Metals | 9.5 | 10 | 5.3 |
| Total Exports | 305.9 | 300.5 | (-) 1.8 |
| Note: Item-wise break up does not add to total because of select commodities | |||
| Source: Directorate General of commercial Intelligence and Statistics | |||
