'Trump's plan to enhance infra may boost engineering exports'

US President-elect Donald Trump's plans to enhance America's infrastructure through fiscal expansion is likely to boost India's engineering exports to the country, says EEPC India.
"Trump's plan to infuse massive stimulus to ramp up the physical American infrastructure through fiscal expansion would be a big positive for the Indian engineering exports to the US with increased demand expected for items such as steel and iron," EEPC India Chairman TS Bhasin said in a statement here today.
The US, one of the largest destination for India's engineering exports, has witnessed a sharp drop in the shipments for quite some time now.

Such exports to the US dropped by over 10 per cent to USD 3.2 billion during April-September 2016-17 from USD 3.5 billion in the same period last year.
"Such a fall came about on the back of a big drop of 37.8 per cent in shipments of India's iron and steel to USD 140 million during the first half of the current fiscal from USD 225 million in the year ago period," he said.
He said Trump's plan for a massive fiscal stimulus includes building of ports, airports and the entire construction sector which should see a big rise in demand for iron and steel.

"Though the Republican candidate had suggested during the election campaign a big tariff hike on imports from China, India does not expect any such punitive measure," Bhasin said.
Cumulative engineering exports to all destinations declined by 2.75 per cent to USD 30.03 billion in April-September 2016-17 from USD 30.88 billion in the corresponding period last fiscal.