Containerised trade on recovery path despite declining 8% in Jul-Sept quarter: Maersk

Indian containerised trade is on a recovery path despite declining by about 8% year-on-year during the third quarter (July to September) of the year, Maersk, the world’s number one container line, said on Thursday.

The shipping giant said that containerised trade from the country reported a 31% increase from the second quarter, indicating that trade is on a path of recovery.

According to the report, which is a combination of market intelligence and Maersk data, exports out of India are up by 14% over Q3 of last year while they are 47% higher than Q2 of 2020. Imports are, however, 28% lower than Q3 of 2019, but have recovered by more than 30% from Q2 of 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% over the same quarter last year. The exports of textiles and apparels to the Mediterranean markets also grew by 10%,Maersk reports. 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 have stayed lower than the preceding year in 2020 , 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% over Q2 of 2020, the report says.

The report adds that overall recovery of import-export trade in India will begin in the first half of 2021. Steve Felder, managing director, Maersk South Asia, commented, “ ‘China + 1’ sourcing strategies are benefiting South East Asian countries, and there is much potential for India to take advantage of this shift. Key factors favouring this development are government’s initiatives to attract investments, focus on developing port and land-side infrastructure, technology adoption and automation, lower labour cost and availability of raw materials.”