India’s export growth driven by the West: Maersk

According to the Q4 2018 trade report released by Maersk, India’s containerised trade with the world has grown steadily, recording an overall import-export trade growth of six per cent. Increasing demand for refrigerated cargo from India coupled with improved trade relations with China, with introduction of favourable trade policies, has driven exports to grow a healthy three per cent in Q4. The demand for India-made goods such as vehicles, cereals and rice supplemented by refrigerated cargo such as fish, seafood, vegetables and pharmaceuticals saw maximum growth in exports. Imports maintained a stable growth of nine per cent, largely driven by substantial inflow of metals and paper. Overall, the containerised trade witnessed stable growth withstanding the fluctuations of global trade tensions.
Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia, said, “We witnessed a stable trade environment in the last quarter of 2018 due to base effects, weakening demand of goods in China, overall contraction in manufacturing around the world, and the global trade tensions between major economies. The stable growth in trade indicates that the economy has been able to sail through some of these challenges, including the impact of regulatory reforms such as demonetisation and implementation of GST.”