Engineering exports to China drop 50 percent in October

India's engineering exports to China fell by nearly 50 percent to $310 million in October, hit by slowdown in the Chinese economy, the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) India said Sunday.

The country exported engineering goods to China worth $612 million in the same month last year.

"While there is a contention that China's slowdown may not pinch us, it is clearly doing so as it also happens to be one of our main markets for exports," EEPC chairman Anupam Shah said in a statement.

"For instance, the total export of iron and steel, which mainly go to China, went down by 18 percent to $704 million in October 2014 from $858 million a year ago," EEPC added.

Problems in western Europe also had a "biting impact" on Indian shipments of the engineering goods, the EEPC said.

Consignments to the UK were down 29 percent to $169 million in October 2014 from $238 million a year ago, while shipments to Italy were down 22 percent to $127 million from $163 million.

Export of engineering items to Germany also went down by over 4 percent to $163 million from $171 million, the statement said.

According to the EEPC, export of engineering products declined 9.36 percent to $5.03 billion in October 2014 over October 2013.

However, due to better showing in the previous months, the cumulative value of engineering exports recorded a positive growth of 18.46 percent in the period April-October of the current fiscal over the same period last year, the statement added.