NEW DELHI, JUL 29: India’s food inflation eased and fuel inflation notched up in mid July, but the data is unlikely to change the central bank’s decisive move towards stamping down on doubledigit inflation. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had on Tuesday raised interest rates more forcefully than expected and said the balance of its policy stance had shifted to containing double-digit inflation and anchoring inflationary expectations. With the RBI lifting its headline inflation projections for the year to end March to 6 pc, economists now expect a more aggressive tightening than earlier foreseen. Data released on Thursday showed the food price index rose an annual 9.67 pc in the week to July 17, compared with the previous week’s increase of 12.47 pc with prices of cereals, rice and vegetables falling on the week, The fuel price index rose 14.29 pc in the period as against a 14.27 pc in the previous week.

MUMBAI, JUL 29: Century Textiles and Ind will re-enter the shipping business five years after its exit. The company on Jul 27 received the shareholers’ permission at the company’s AGM for he proposed re-entry. It will foray into the business by acquiring oil tankers and carriers. The company had run a shipping division for nearly two-decades till it closed down the business in 2005 in the wake of uncertain prospects. Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who is also a director of Century Textiles, said the company will shortly finalise its plan in the shipping business.

NEW DELHI, JUL 29:The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has highlighted the lack of direct shipping services between  Latin America and India, noting that punitive import taxes were stifling the potential for closer ties at a pivotal time for the global economy.

In a report, it said that with no direct shipping routes between India and Latin America, goods are sent via Singapore or Europe, increasing both freight rates and shipping times-by as much as nine days in the case of Brazil.

‘A 10 pc reduction in freight rates would likely boost imports of Indian goods by as much as 46 pc and  47 pc in chile and Argentina, respectivel,’ the IADB said India and Latin America also impose huge Import duties on goods shipped between them despite a series of accords over the past decade that IADB president Luis Alberto Moreno said have ‘yet to effectively address the most obvious and serious obstacles to bilateral trade.’ Latin American agricultural goods face average tariffs of 65 pc upon entry to India, more than five times China’s 12.5 pc average tariff, according to the IADB Figures dating to 2006 and 2007.

Indian manufactured goods, in turn, are charged tariffs of up to 9.8 pc in Latin America. Cutting  those tariffs on Indian products by 10 pc would spur a 36 pc Jump in Indian goods entering chile and Argentina, the report said.

‘In order to boost trade, both India and Latin America must lower tariffs and trade barriers,’  it said.

India replaced China as the biggest market for Argentine soyabean oil after Beijing imposed a boycott in late March in response to Argentina’s anti duming duties on certain chinese products such as shoes, textiles and steel products.

Argentine Agriculture Minister Julian Dominguez will go to india next week to discuss potential for continued soya oil and sunflower oil sales, the ministry said. In its report, the IADB argued that demand for Latin America’s natural resources ’should be strong enough to send bilateral trade soaring ‘ as India seeks agricultural goods and minerals such as copper to tackle poverty and build needed infrastructure.

BANGALORE, JULY 29: KARNATAKA  has banned the export of iron ore from the 10 Ports in the state from August 2.

The Chief Minister, Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, said “The state has stopped issuing permits for movement of iron ore in the state except for captive purpose.

The minor ports through which iron ore was exported earlier include Karwar, Old Mangalore and Belikeri.

The move is aimed at curbing illegal mining for exports.

NEW DELHI, JUL 29: The govt said that it is mulling over steps to give a further push to exports, which have grown by over 32 pc in the first quarter of the current fiscal. The commerce Ministry has completed three-day consultations with exporter bodies such as FIEO and business chambers in the wake of the prime ministry’s Economic Advisory council (PMEAC) revising the export target to $216 billion for 2010-11. Earlier, the ministry had fixed the export target at $200 billion on top of $182 billion in 2009-10 (the government has since revised the exports for $176.6 to $182 billion). “Our consultations with chambers and exports councils have been completed.

Now we will have in house exercises and see what is required to be done,” commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said the review meeting. India’s exports which were impacted  by the global demand slowdown, started rising from November 2009 on back of improved demand in the traditional markets of US and EU.

In the first three months, exports stood at $50.8 billion — showing a growth of 32.2 pc over the year-ago period.

Sharma said the government may provide additional fiscal benefits to exporters, besides shuffling existing sops to provide more help to lagging sectors, ” We will see if we have to do some minor changes (in fiscal sops), tweaking we call it, and if we have to make some additions we will look at that, ” he said.

He said that several sectors, such as textiles and handicrafts, continue to lag behind and the government may proivde some additional support to these labour-intensive sectors.

The exporters get sops such as the focus product /market scheme, VKGUY and DEPB. Besides other demands, exporters want an extension of the DEPB scheme, under which they will get duty benefits on import fo capital goods. The schember will expire on December 31.

When asked if the government would consider the extension during review of export policies, sharma said, “Yes, it will be (considered),” other issure, including availability of credit to exporters, also came up for discussions during the meeting. Exports started going up from November last year, after contracting for 13 months in a row since October 2008. Though exports went up by 30.4 pc in June this year over the year-ago period, they still fell short of matching the pre-financial scenario.

NEW DELHI, JULY 28: THE Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, has assured that the government will soon take steps to help labour-intensive sectors like textiles and handicrafts that had not yet recovered from the global slowdown.

MUMBAI, JULY 28: THE BK Birla flagship company apparently has a five-year itch! For precisely after this period, it has been drawn by the call of the sea once again! The company’s shareholders gave their permission at the annual general meeting for the proposed the proposed for the proposed reentry into the shipping business.

Century Textiles proposed to enter the business by acquiring oil tankers and carriers.

Century Textiles had run a shipping division for nearly two decades till it  closed down the business in 2005  following uncertain prospects.

The Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla, who is also a Director of Century Textiles, said the company would shortly finalise its detailed plan for the shipping business.

KOCHI, JULY 28: SINCE seafood exports to the European Union are getting tougher and costlier, what with the EU imposing stiff conditions like inspection of 20 per cent of aquaculture consignments, the industry has begun to seek new markets in East Asia.

Mr Anwar Hashim, president of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), observed that exporters certainly had no choice in the matter, since the inspections were mandatory.

“On an average, each consignment held over for additional inspection entails a delay of 10 days, For the importer, it is a nuisance delay of 10 days for his consignment, For the exporter it entails greater expenditure because he will have to bear the additional demurrage on those additional 10 days,” a Gujarat based seafood exporter explained.

The new LCs will also have to incorporate conditions stipulating that the exporter will have to bear the additional demurrage as well as the cost involved in shipping the consignment out of EU, If rejected, the exporter pointed out.

As most of the established exporters had built up long standing relationships with their EU importers, the threat of the buyer sourcing his imports from another another exporter in another country was slim, But for new and inexperienced exporters, the chances of loss of business was more.

As per EU’s norms, all aquaculture products exported have to be accompanied by analytical test reports on the absence of chloromphenicol, tetracycline, oxytetracycline, choloroteracycline and metabolites of nitrofuran, or that they are at permitted levels.

The decision, which has come into force from July 9, also states that the EU will subject at least 20 per cent of aquaculture imports to this parametar a the Bordera spection ports.

Mr Hashim pointed out that there were 85-90 entry points into the EU and uncertainty about how the procedure will be implemented.

The new procedures may put off the importers since they will not be sure if their import contracts will go for extra inspection.

NEW DELHI, JUL 28: In sharp contrast to the slowdown in India’s external trade last fiscal, exports from special economic zones (SEZs) grew by a whopping 121.4 pc, the commerce ministry said today, Exports from SEZs during 2009-10 stood at Rs 2,20,711.39 crore ($49 billion) India’s total exports during the same period was down 4.7 pc at $176.5 billion. During the first quarter of the current fiscal, SEZ exports have touched Rs 58,685.46 crore, an over 68 pc growth compared to corresponding period of the previous fiscal. As on June30, an investment of Rs. 1,66,526 crore has been made in SEZs and direct employment for 5,50,323 persons have been generated,” MInister of State for commerce Jyotiraditya Scindia said in a written reply in the Rajya sabha. Before formation of SEZs was formalised and incentivised, the central govt ran seven SEZs and state governments and the private sector set up 12 such zones. Since the SEZ Act 2005. formal approval has been accorded to 576 proposals out of which 358 SEZs have been notified. A total of 114 SEZs are already exporting, Scindia added.

NEW DELHI, JUL 28: The World Shipping Council met with US based shipper and forwarder trade associations recently to explain the European Union’s new customs cargo security filing requirements, which are scheduled to enter into force on Jan 1, 2011.

The new European rules will require the documentation of containerized cargo shipments that will arrive in European ports to be electronically filed with European customs authorities no later than 24 hours before vessel loading.

All shippers and exporters, whose goods arrive in the European Union for importation or transshipment or simply to stay on board the vessel en route to another destination, will be affected,” said Chris Koch, WSC  president and CEO.

The WSC decided to begin outreach efforts outside of Europe by meeting with these U. S. organizations that collectively represent thousands of businesses engaged in European commerce. “While carriers are aware of and preparing for these new filing requirements, it is important that shippers and forwarders around the world understand that they too will have to adjust their business processes in order to ensure compliance with the new rules,” Koch said.

He said all shippers and forwarders will have to make changes under these new rules much like the process changes they initiated when the U. S. implemented its 24-Hour Rule.