Containerised trade reports 31% increase in volumes, compares to Q2, 2020: Maersk

With a 14 per cent growth quarter on quarter, India’s containerised export is helping the country’s trade recover, explains Maersk report on India’s import-export trade update from Q3 of 2020 (July – September). During Q3 of 2020, the Indian containerised trade contracted by about 8 per cent as compared to the same period last year. However, comparing to Q2 of 2020, there has been a 31 per cent increase in volumes, indicating that trade is on a path of recovery. Exports out of India are up by 14 per cent over Q3 of last year while they are 47 per cent higher than Q2 of 2020. Imports are however 28 per cent lower than Q3 of 2019, but have recovered by more than 30 per cent from Q2 2020.
The rising demand for Indian textiles and apparels, especially to the North American markets, has driven tremendous growth in exports in the past quarter. Textiles and apparels contribute a quarter of exports to North America, and these volumes delivered a growth of 10 per cent over the same quarter last year. The exports of textiles and apparels to the Mediterranean markets also grew by 10 per cent. Other commodities that witnessed growth in exports include tile, stone and glass to the North European region, and seeds, beans, cereal and flour to the Middle East and Mediterranean countries.
Imports into India start showing first signs of recovery
Q3 of 2020 was yet another quarter where imports were lower than the same period in 2019, however there is some growth compared to Q2 of 2020. Imports of commodities such as paper, metal, appliances and kitchenware have increased since the last quarter, though they are far below the levels in the same period last year. Volumes of appliances and kitchenware coming from China are almost half of what they were last year in the same quarter, but are showing growth of 25 per cent over Q2 2020. Imports of paper from the USA show a similar trend, being 40 per cent lower than last year’s third quarter, but with a growth of over 25 per cent from last quarter, this year.
Owing to the staggered supply and demand shocks across geographies, combined with challenging economic indicators in Q2 and Q3, Indian containerised trade has been severely impacted in 2020. Whereas exports have recovered strongly, imports remain subdued with signs of slow recovery coming in towards the end of the year.
Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia, commented, “Changing patterns in retail behaviours are reshaping the supply chain trends to an extraordinary extent, leading to a growing focus on risk mitigation and resilience-building, while dealing with threats of growing trade protectionism.”