India's Iran Oil Imports Set To Surge To 7-Year High In 2016/17

India is set to import at least 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in the year from April 1, with refiners looking to ramp up purchases after the sanctions targeting Tehran ended in January, industry sources familiar with the matter said.

Average annual imports at that level in the fiscal year just begun would be the highest in at least seven years, and would carry forward a bump in purchases that lifted March shipments to a five-year high for a month at 506,100 bpd.

Iran was India's second biggest oil supplier - a position now belonging to Iraq - before economic sanctions aimed at Iran's nuclear programme hampered its trade relations, forcing the South Asian nation to tap alternative suppliers.

The plans for higher annual imports by India are a sign that Tehran is beginning to regain market share after the lifting of sanctions. Iran has said it will continue increasing its oil output and exports until it reaches the market position it held in the pre-sanctions era.

India's state refiners - Indian Oil Corp, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Bharat Petroleum

and Hindustan PetroleumBSE 0.86 % - told Iran in February that together they are willing to buy about 240,000 bpd in the year begun in April, the industry sources said.

Among private refiners Essar Oil is willing to lift about 120,000 bpd, they said, and HMEL has indicated it will buy a small quantity with an option to raise volumes.

The Indian oil companies and the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) - which handles Tehran's oil sales - did not respond to requests for comment.

IOCBSE -0.10 % aims to buy 80,000 bpd from Iran with an option for another 40,000 bpd, MRPL will buy about 90,000-100,000 bpd, while HPCLBSE 0.86 % and BPCLBSE 0.48 % plan to buy about 20,000 bpd each, the sources said.

In addition to these volumes and the barrels Essar is looking to buy, private refiner Reliance IndustriesBSE -0.68 % is seeking to buy 100,000-120,000 bpd Iranian oil, mainly heavy grades, Reuters reported in February.

It is not clear, however, how much of the heavy grades Reliance will be able to purchase as many of the barrels have already been committed. Last month, Reliance made spot imports of Iranian oil, its first such purchase since 2010.

The Indian refiners are expected to finalise their annual contract deals with Iran soon, the sources said.

The Indian buyers are being drawn in part by freight discounts that increase as more barrels are purchased, although the concession is much less than the free shipping that Iran was offering under pressure from sanctions, the sources said.

Purchases from Tehran could still be impacted by the availability of insurance cover for installations processing Iranian oil and the resumption of banking channels to facilitate payments and opening of letter of credits (LCs).

Last month ship insurers stepped in to help plug a shortfall in cover for transporting Iranian oil as U.S. reinsurers are still restrained by Washington's sanctions.

However, there is still no clarity on whether reinsurers will facilitate cover for refineries processing Iranian oil, the sources said.

Iran last month gave a list of about a dozen banks, mainly European, that have accounts with Turkey's Halkbank to clear a part of about $6 billion dues pending with Indian firms.

Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com

India's Coffee Exports Rise 13.39% In 2015-16

India's coffee exports jumped by 13.39 per cent to 3,19,733 tonnes in 2015-16 fiscal over the previous year, on slight increase in the shipment of instant coffee and other varieties.

The country had shipped 2,81,987 tonnes of coffee in the previous fiscal, Coffee Board said in its latest report.

"Though unit value realisation remained less due to lower global prices, the overall quantity of exports were up 13.39 per cent as there was increase in shipments of value-added products like instant coffee," a senior Board official said.

Instant coffee exports rose to 97,000 tonnes from 94,000 tonnes in the said period, the official added.

In value terms, total exports increased to Rs 5,204 crore in the last fiscal from Rs 4,877 crore in 2014-15, as per the Board data.

Due to weak global prices, unit value realisation remained lower at Rs 1,62,774 per tonne as against Rs 1,72,970 per tonne in the said period.

Besides instant coffee, India exports both arabica and robusta varieties. Major export destinations are Italy, Germany, Turkey, Russian Federation and Belgium among others.

Going forward, the Board official said that it will work towards strengthening high-value export markets like the European Union, the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Scandinavian countries.

As per post-monsoon estimate, the country's coffee output is pegged at 3,50,000 tonne for 2015-16 crop year (October- September), against 3,27,000 tonne in the last year. The harvesting of the 2015-16 crop has been completed.

Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com

India's Sugar Exports Halt As Prices Surge On Lower Output Forecast

India's sugar exports have come to a halt as dealers have not signed new contracts in the past five days after local prices surged on expectations of lower output, trade sources said on Tuesday.

India, the world's biggest sugar producer after Brazil, has contracted to export 1.6 million tonnes since the season began on Oct. 1. Dealers have shipped out 1.3 million tonnes so far.

Local prices have surged nearly 8 percent in the past 10 days after India, also the world's top consumer of the sweetener, cut its output estimate by 1.4 percent from an earlier forecast. Output is expected to fall this season after six straight years of surplus production.

The government was instrumental in persuading mills to agree to a target of 3.2 million tonnes of sugar exports in 2015/16. With forecasts of lower output and higher local prices, traders say India may not be able to meet its export target.

Source:- in.reuters.com

Big Missing Link In ‘Make In India’: Quick Export-Import Clearance To Participate In Global Value Chains

As finance minister Arun Jaitley grimly observed in the budget speech, “Our third major challenge is that manufacturing has declined from 18% to 17% of GDP as per new GDP data; and manufacturing exports have remained stagnant at about 10% ofGDP.” While everyone agrees manufacturing needs an enormous thrust to reach 25% ofGDP by 2025, do we miss something vital while discussing solutions? Compared to China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia or Thailand, Indian manufacturing is marked by near non-participation in most of the Global Value Chains (GVCs).

India does not manufacture most electronic, telecom or high tech products as manufacturing these requires participation in GVCs. India imports these, in large quantities. Becoming part of the high value added activities ofGVCs is critical for Indian manufacturing as the products manufactured in GVCs constitute a large 70% share of world trade in non-fuel manufactured products. Why does India not participate in GVCs? Because India cannot ensure quick export import clearances.

Why are quick export-import clearances critical to GVC operations? Let’s understand this. Manufacturing ofmost technology products is a multi-stage process involving production collaboration among firms located in several countries. To ensure efficient production process, the system binds all participants to just-in-time production and supply schedules. This requires quick export-import clearances at each stage. Any delay at one port or customs may create disruption for the subsequent stages of production. Obviously, both the defaulting firm and country may risk being tossed out ofthe network in such a scenario. China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia have become high-tech manufacturing nations through the quality trade infrastructure route. But India does not meet the benchmarks for efficient entry/exit at most ports/customs. Export data confirms this narrative. While India’s overall share in world merchandise trade is 1.7%, its share in electronic, telecom and high tech products is less than 0.4%. This weak product profile sets the boundaries for India’s manufacturing and export growth.

India mostly exports products that are tolerant ofless efficient trade infrastructure. Rice, cotton, diamonds, jewellery,yarn, garments, low end engineering products, generic medicines and petrochemicals are some examples. Of India’s export earnings 75% come from such products but they account for less than 30% of world merchandise trade. Simply put, most of India’s manufacturing and exports end up chasing a small fraction of the global trade basket. We need our ports and customs to deliver at world class benchmarks. Three steps can radically improve the system. One, make all export-import services available online with minimum human contact and clear exportimport consignments in less than aday. Because hundreds of ports, airports, customs stations, central excise offices, inland container depots and container freight stations still rely on standalone processing and manual documentation, we are far away from the integrated paperless environment required for faster clearances. Two, allow green channel clearances based on self-declaration at the factory and port. This will ensure quicker transactions and better use of infrastructure. We may make a beginning by scanning the profile of the top 11,000 exporters that account for 85% of India’s exports.

For defaulters, penalties should be steep. And three, upgrade physical facilities at the five major ports so they meet the global best parameters in timely delivery and set up three new world class port cum industrial complexes. These will be the new manufacturing cum export hubs for technology products – free from the limitations of weak domestic infrastructure. China benefitted from this model and products in China travel only a third of the distance between factory and port than products in India. Creating the conditions necessary for India’s participation in GVCs will spur domestic and foreign anchor firms to set up manufacturing facilities for production ofnot only electronic and telecom equipment but also high end engineering and complex machinery. With multinationals’ compulsion to relocate production elsewhere as China is becoming expensive, this is an opportunity India cannot miss.

Source:- blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Rupee Rally Continues For 6Th Day, Up 5 Paise To Rs 66.21 Per Dollar

Extending its winning momentum for the sixth straight sessions, rupee Tuesday strengthened by 5 paise to close at Rs 66.21 per dollar on persistent selling of American currency by banks and exporters amid sustained foreign capital inflows.

Recovery in equity market also boosted rupee value against dollar, a forex dealer said.

Rupee resumed lower at Rs 66.30 against last Thursday's closing of Rs 66.26 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market and dropped to 66.3775 on initial dollar demand from banks and importers.

However, it recovered afterwards to 66.10 on selling of dollar by banks and exporters on hopes of more foreign capital inflows before finishing at 66.21, showing a gain of five paise or 0.08%.

It has gained by 50 paise or 0.75% in six trading days.

It hovered in a range of 66.3775 and 66.10 during the day.

The dollar index was up 0.11% against a basket of six currencies in the late afternoon trade.

In overseas market, dollar was on the defensive early, nursing deep losses against the euro and yen after Friday's firm US jobs report failed to shift a broadly held view that Federal Reserve will remain cautious on raising interest rates this year.

Oil prices fell in early trading as chances of Middle East producers agreeing to curb over-production appeared to fade, while US output remains stubbornly high.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity Financial Services said, "The rupee opened at 66.30/dollar weaker compared to previous close of 66.26/dollar thus by appreciating dollar. Following to positive cues from domestic equity market, rupee appreciated and breached the level of 66.20/dollar for the day."

The benchmark index Nifty closed with a gain of 46 points ahead of RBI monetary policy.

Trading range for the spot USD/INR paid is expected to be within 65.80 to 66.50/dollar.

In forward market, premium for dollar moved down on good receivings from exporters.

The benchmark six-month premium for September declined to 206.5-208 paise from 210-212 on last Thursday and far forward March 2017 contract also fell to 403.5-404.5 paise from 407-409 paise.

The RBI fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 66.2430 and euro at 75.3713.

In cross-currency trades, the rupee firmed up further against the pound sterling to finish at 94.36 from 95.50 on last Thursday and also moved up against the euro to 75.26 per euro from 75.40.

However, the rupee dropped against the yen to 59.28 per 100 yen from 59.02 previously.

Source:- http://ift.tt/15HW3lL