Exports from Vizag SEZ flat, courtesy downturn

Economic slowdown since the last few years has meant that exports from the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ) registered only a modest increase in 2009-10 over the preceding year.

The units in the VSEZ have clocked output worth Rs 1,626 crore in the last financial year. However, only about 56.5 per cent of this was exported, amouting to Rs 918 crore, as compared with Rs 902 crore in the preceding year.

Of this, software exports were Rs 17.94 crore, while manufacturing goods accounted for Rs 882 crore and exports generated through trading activity were Rs 17.33 crore, according to VSEZ sources.

Out of the 68 units operating in the VSEZ, only about 40 units were in export activity during the last fiscal, while the rest had not exported due to lack of orders, sources said.

Major exporters last year were Opto Circuits (which clocked exports worth Rs 331.78 crore), Worldwide Diamond Manufacturing Private Limited (Rs 132.24 crore), Oil Field Warehouse (Rs 120 crore), BHL Power Systems Private Limited (Rs 72.95 crore), Nitin Cylinders (Rs 48.54 crore), MDL Technologies (Rs 14.29 crore) and Gland Pharma (Rs 12.83 crore). These seven units had accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the total exports from the VSEZ.

Spread over 360 acre, the VSEZ is now fully occupied with manufacturing industries in the developed land and software units in two standard-design factory (SDF) buildings. While all the developed land has been allotted to different units, about 30,000 sft space is still vacant in the SDF buildings.

VSEZ officials said software industry had not picked up as expected due to economic recession, and left significant amount of space in SDF buildings still vacant.