News

NEW DELHI JAN 24:The Shipping Corporation of India Ltd(SCI) has announced a freight increase on cargo moving ex-Indian Sub_continent to European Med Sector US$ 200/TEU w.e.f.Jan 30,2012.The increase is for all the booking to North Europe,UK ,Mediterranean and Black Sea ports.The Rate Restoration (RR) is imperative at this point to meet the overall operation costs and hence to serve the trade efficiently.

Meanwhile the company has accepted delivery of Supra-max bulk carrier,m.v.Vishva Ekta on January 18,2012.This is the fourth vessel of the six bulk carriers ordered at STX (Dalian) Shipbuilding Co.Ltd.China way back in December 2007.The remaining two vessels are scheduled to delivered in Feb.2012 & Mar 2012.The vessel has a gross tonnage of 33,185 tonnes and deadweight of 57,099 tonnes.The vessel has been classed with DNV and IRS and has been built to comely with the latest international regulations.with this addition the fleet strength stands at 78 vessels of 5.84 million wt.

NEW DELHI JAN 17: INDIA’S coffee exports declined by 15 pc to 58,598 tonnes in the first three months of the ongoing 2011-12 coffee year according to the latest data.

The country had shipped 68,740 tonnes of the brew overseas in the October-December period of the 2010-11 coffee year (October-September) the Coffee Board data shows.Coffee exports from India were around 58,598 tonnes in the first quarter of the current coffee year a Coffee Board official said.

Data shows that coffee exports from India declined by 7pc to 20,000 tonnes in December 2011 from 21576 tonnes in the year ago period after witnessing a rebound in November,2011.India’s coffee exports had surged by 22pc to 19,403 tonnes in the corresponding year ago period.however overseas shipment of thee brew from Indai declined by 0 pc to 19,195 tonnes in October 2011,from 24,119 tonnes in the same period of the previous year.

Nevertheless,India’s coffee exports rose by 8 pc to an estimated 3.50 lakh tonnes in the 2011 calendar year from 2.74 lakh tonnes in the 2010 calendar year.in the 2010-11 fiscal overseas shipments of the brew rose by 50 pc to 2.94 lakh tonnes from 1.96 lakh tonnes in 2009-10 financial year.However the Coffee Board expects exports to be lower in the current fiscal.The board estimates coffee exports to decrease by 14pc to 2.40-2.50 lakh tonnes in the 2011-12 fiscal

NEW DELHI JAN 17 :Exports grew by 6.7 pc year-on-year to $25 billion commerce Secretory Rahul Khullar said.Imports too increased by 19.8 pc to $ 37.8 billion in the month leaving a trade deficit of A$12.8 billion.During April-December period of this fiscal merchandise shipment grew by 25.8 pc to $217.6 billion .”My guess is that we may touch $300 billion by end of he fiscal Khullar said.During the first three quarters of the current fiscal imports were up by 30.4 pc to $350.9 billion.

The trade deficit stood at $133.3 billion during the period.India’s export growth may face difficulties in the calendar year 2012,Khullar said the full year 2011-12 exports are seen at $300 billion.India exporters,however have struggled in recent months is he face of economic turbulence in the European Union which is India’s biggest trade that he would be happy if exports were to grow about 20 pc in 2012-13.

NEW DELHI JAN 19:INDIA’S handicraft exports growth slowed to 9 pc in December2011 after witnessing a peak of 32 pc in October with over seas shipments totaling just USD 338 million on account of less demand from US European markets.

In December last year India’s exports stood at USD 309 million according to data provided by the Exports Promotion Council for Handicrafts(EPCH).’The demand is sluggish in Western Markets like Europe and US due to fragile economic growth,”an EPCH official said.This US and European Union together account for 70 pc of the country’s handicraft exports.

The item that saw the maximum export growth was wood-ware(90pc) followed by shawls as art-ware (about 30per cent) and imitation jewellery (22.5pc).

However embroidered and crocheted goods registered negative growth of about 7 PC.

During April-December 2011,handicrafts exports went up by about 19 PC to USD 1.7billion from USD 1.4 billion in the same period last fiscal.

The handicrafts sector employs one million people,Moradabad,Jaipur,Saharanpur and Jodhpurs are the major handicraft hubs in the country catering to global markets.

NEW DELHI JAN 19: Container lines will struggle to maintain recent freight rates gains after the Chinese Lunar New Year because the industry hasn’t done enough to reduce excess capacity analyst said.

Carriers have pushed through rate increase since mid-December in the approach to factory excess capacity remained.

“The liners have still not been taking out capacity at a rate needed to support further rate increase-or even ensure they can maintain rates post-Lunar New year.’

The idle fleet expanded from 3.6 percent to 3.9 percent at the beginning of the year falling far short of the 8 per cent level that she believes is needed to spur a rate recovery.”If anything we believes the recent realignment of the industry into new alliance will forestall rather than promote capacity withdrawals.”

Chinese New Year officially starts on Jan 23,but many factories are set to close early this week.Paul Tsui,chairman of the Hong Kong Association of freight Forwarding and Logistics,said weak demand could see closures also lat long than normal,perhaps into ‘early February” which could further highlight the mismatch between demand and supply in container markets rates such as in 2009 have prompted delays in the delivery of new capacity.However it is unlikely that lines will adopt the strategy this year.

“Carriers need to take deliver of the

SINGAPORE JAN 18:THE global fleet of container-ships may increase 8.3 per cent in 2012 the most in two years prolonging an over-supply of vessels on all major trade lanes that could undemine efforts to raise rates said Alpha-liner.

Container-ship capacity could increase by a net 1.28 million TEUs this year according to the latest edition of Alpha-liner’s weekly newsletter.The pace of increase compares with a 6.5 per cent growth projected for the trade demand this year the maritime data provider said.

Further shipping lines may have lost about $ 5.2 billion last year as overcapacity caused spot rates to fall as much as 65 per cent on cargo moved to Europe from Asia.A 36 per cent rise in fuel prices also widened losses for companies last year according to Dre-wry shipping Consultants.

About 49 per cent of the scheduled deliveries were for vessels that can be more than 10,000 boxes of which most will be deployed on the Asia-Europe trade,Alpha-liner said,adding,’This will create a serious glut of tonnage on these routes as well as trigger heavy cascading which will spares the oversupply to other routes.”

Two among the top 5 container lines are expected to take delivery of 21 such large vessels each this year according to Alpha-liner.

NEW DELHI JAN 15:Exporters,hitherto withholding their dollar earning over seas hoping for better returns vis-a-vis the rupee are now bringing their foreign currency earnings in a hurry.The turnaround has been triggered by widespread expectations that the rupee’s precipitous fall against the dollar has bottomed out.

What is making it more difficult to hold on to their dollar earning is the strengthening of the rupee against the dollar by nearly Rs1.50 over the last week (from Rs53.14 to 51.82) and by Rs 2.40 since mid December last year (when it was Rs 54.23) as well as the continued depreciation of the euro.The euro has come down from around Rs 70 to about Rs 65 over the last one month.Europe accounts for a fifth of India’s total exports.the current bear run on the Reserve Bank of India’s recent moves.

Over the past few days the central bank has moved to deregulate internal deposit accounts and ban re-booking of forward contract once cancelled.The government has also permitted qualified foreign investors including individuals abroad to directly invest in the India equity market.All these have helped shore up sentiment and arrest what at one time seemed to suggest s free fall of the rupee.

“Earlier exporters were hesitant to bring back the dollar earnings due to the Forex volatility and the expectation of rupee going to record lows of even over Rs 55 versus a dollar.But now things have changed.They (exporters) want to bring it back as soon as possible fearing lower rupee returns,”an export industry source said.

Most exporters around 50-60 per cent of them had taken forward covers in the range of RS 40-50 against the dollar sources said.They added that though the rupee crossed the 50-mark to touch lows of even Rs 54.3 to a dollar te losses on account of hat are only notional.

NEW DELHI JAN 03:THE Union government has hiked the tariff on iron ore exports from 20 per cent.The raise in duty would retrospectively come into effect from December 30,2011,the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said recently.

The government had last raised the duty in February 2011 when the 15 per cent on fines was raised to a uniform 20 per cent.

The tariff increase is seen as an attempt to conserve the available resource for the domestic industry but is likely to hurt India’s struggling ore exports further.

NEW DELHI JAN 3:INDIA’S November exports rose an annual 3.87 per cent to $22.3 billion the slowest in two years,while imports for the month rose 24.55 per cent to $35.9 billion.

Accounting to a Ministry of Commerce release the trade deficit in November was at $ 13.6 billion.Oil imports for the month grew 32.3 per cent to $10.3 billion,the release said.

Exports during the April-November 2011 period were at $ 192.7 billion.

Last month the government admitted it had accidentally inflated the 2011 export figures by more than $ 9 billion which it blamed on a glitch in the computer system.

NEW DELHI JAN 3:THE date for implementing the service tax levy on transports of goods by rail has been deferred once again to April 1 against the earlier scheduled date of January 1.

The imposition of the levy has now been put off times.Sources from the sector are of the view that any levy on rail freight would have an adverse impact on the domestic industry especially cement and steel,given the high inflation situation in the economy.

They aver that such companies would end up shelling out more for rail movement of their inputs such as cool,as also for their finished products.The overall wholesale price index(WPI) based on inflation in the economy has remained stubbornly high at near double digits since the start of 2010.

However,even after the service tax comes into effect from April 1,the rail movement of pulses,food-grains,petroleum products for the public distribution system,organic and chemical manure and motor vehicle would be exempted from the levy.

Sources confirmed that the 70 per cent abatement norm too would now come into effect from April 1.