Rupee Down 11 Paise Against Dollar In Early Trade

The rupee depreciated by 11 paise to 67.42 against dollar in early trade on Tuesday due to sustained demand for the American currency from importers amid foreign fund outflows.

Besides, a weak opening in the domestic equity market weighed on the domestic unit, dealers said.

However, weakness in the dollar against major world currencies in the global market, limited the rupee fall.

The domestic unit ended lower by 23 paise on Monday to close at an over two-week low of 67.31 on heavy bouts of dollar demand amid uncertainty in the wake of RBI governor Raghuram Rajan’s decision against pursuing a second stint.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex fell 82.52 points, or 0.31%, to 26,784.40 in early trade.

Source:- hindustantimes.com

Costly Local Cotton Forces Mills To Import

Textile spinning mills in the region have started importing cotton as prices of the commodity are ruling higher in the local market compared to the international market. While the landed cost for imported cotton works out to around 41,000 per candy (a candy is 355 kgs), the popular Shankar-6 cotton (Indian Raw Cotton) grown mostly in Gujarat costs about 43,000 per candy including transportation costs.

"Mills have started buying West African cotton as costs are lower," said K Selvaraju, secretary general, Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA). Two leading textile mills in south India have bought about 2 lakh bales (a bale is 170 kgs) each of West African cotton in the past 2-3 months, industry officials said.

"The cost of imported cotton is lower by at least 2,000 per candy. Moreover, the quality is also much better," a top official with a leading textile mill said. Many spinning mills, including smaller ones with a capacity of 10,000 spindles are importing cotton now, he said.

"With imported cotton, mills get better credit facilities and lower interest rates. Yarn productivity is also good when they use imported cotton," industry officials said. Prices of Shankar-6, which were ruling at about 34,000 per candy, has jumped to around 40,000 per candy now.

While local cotton prices have surged by 12.9% between April and mid-June, they have increased by only 6% in the international market. "This (price rise) is because of hoarding by some traders. Enough cotton is available in the country," industry officials said.


High prices in the domestic market would push up cotton imports in the current season (October-September). While the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB), which comprises representatives of the textile industry, trade, ginners and government officials, had projected imports of around 11 lakh bales for 2015-16 season, it is likely to cross 15 lakh bales, industry officials said.

Latest Comment
Politics in everything-the nation is still hold at ransome by defeated Khangi hoarders be it on cotton or pulses.Sekhar B

Textile mills in the country consume around 25 lakh bales of cotton per month. Mills in the south alone use about 10 lakh bales a month. With area under the crop declining on the back of a drought in Maharashtra and Karnataka and pest attacks affecting output in Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana, cotton production would fall to a five-year low of 352 lakh bales for the 2015-16 season, CAB estimated in February this year.


Industry officials said that output could drop to 340 lakh bales. CAB had pegged output at 365 lakh bales during its first assessment for the 2015-16 season in November. The area under cotton is projected to have fallen 7.3% or 9.4 lakh hectares to 118.81 lakh hectares during the season.

Source:timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Government Begins Mapping Region-Specific Exports For Bigger Share Of Global Trade

NEW DELHI: The government wants to capture greater market share in global trade and has kick-started an exercise for mapping region specific exports to achieve this aim. It has identified the pharmaceutical sector as an "export commodity with high potential" to garner higher market share in Europe and auto components to drive exports growth in South America.

"It is an initial thought and discussions are on to increase India's market share in global exports through products that are expected to grow at a high pace in next four years," said an official, who did not wish to be identified. The move comes at a time when India's exports have been declining for the past 18 months. India's exports in 2015-16 amounted to $261.1 billion, down 15.85% from that in the previous fiscal.

In the two preceding years, the country's share in world exports remained flat at 1.7%. The government has set a target of increasing exports to $900 billion by 2018-19 and expanding the country's share of global exports to more than 3%. The exercise, which began a few days ago, is in line with Foreign Trade Policy of 2015-20 which seeks to support 852 tariff lines that were not supported earlier. These include fruit, vegetables, dairy products, oil meals, Ayush and herbal products, paper and paper board products.

Under this, the government has asked the export promotion council for pharmaceuticals to prepare a forecast of possible compounded annual growth rate in the next four years taking 2015-16 as the base year of India's pharmaceutical exports to Europe since export commodities with high potential should grow faster than the European market in the next four years ending 2019-20. This means exporting companies will have to identify possible products in each of the categories such as bulk drugs, formulations, Ayush and herbal products, taking into account market dynamics such as patent expiries and the possible expansion of the generic sector of Europe.

 

 

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com

Fuel Consumption Grows 6.7% In May, Import Dependence Goes Up To 81.9%

NEW DELHI: India's fuel consumption grew 6.7% in May over that a year ago, reflecting greater use of cars and increased air traffic in an expanding economy, while crude oil production fell 3.3%, increasing import dependence to 81.9% from 81.3%.

In May, India consumed 9.4% more diesel and 16.7% more petrol than it did a year ago, the latest data released by the oil ministry's Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell shows. Aviation turbine fuel consumption grew 20% as lower prices and holiday travels boosted air traffic. Except for kerosene and naphtha, the consumption of all other petroleum products went up during the month.

Domestic output of oil and gas, however, did not pick up. In May, local crude oil production declined 3.3% to 3.1 million metric tonnes from a year ago. Natural gas production fell 6.9% to 2,656 million metric standard cubic meters. Increasing gas demand in the country was met by increased import of liquefied natural gas. India imported 2082 MMSCM of LNG, 43% more than it did a year ago.

The government has set a target to bring down oil imports to 67% of total consumption by 2022.

According to the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell's estimate, India's crude oil import will increase 2% to $66 billion in 2016-17 from $64 billion in the previous financial year considering crude oil price of $45 per barrel for the Indian basket and an exchange rate of Rs 67 to a dollar for the remaining part of this fiscal.

The prices of Brent crude averaged $46.88 per barrel in May, compared to $41.48 in April. The Indian basket crude oil averaged $44.97 per barrel in May, significantly higher than $39.85 a barrel in the previous month.

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com
  

Government Team Leaves For Mozambique To Explore Pulses Imports

NEW DELHI: To tame spiralling prices of pulses, government today sent a high-level delegation to Mozambique to explore short and long-term measures to import the commodities on a government-to-government basis.

Retail pulses prices have shot up as high as Rs 200 per kg owing to a seven million tonnes shortfall in the domestic output following two consecutive drought years.

"A high-level delegation led by Secretary, Consumer Affairs, Hem Pande today left for Mozambique. The delegation will explore both short-term and long-term measures to import pulses from Mozambique on a government-to-government basis," the Consumer Affairs Ministry said in a release.

The delegation comprises senior officials from the Commerce and Agriculture Ministries as well as from state-run MMTCBSE -1.17 %, it said.

Already, another delegation is in Myanmar to discuss availability of pulses for import from there, it added.

The talks with Myanmar, which has about 50,000 tonnes of tur, are in advanced stage but the southeast Asian country is apprehensive of committing pulses supply to India in the absence of adequate infrastructure, according to traders.

 
Unlike India, Myanmar does not have public trading agencies like MMTC and STC, they added.

Besides Mozambique, India is also exploring options in other African nations like Malawi to lease farms for growing pulses to meet India's demand.

A decision to explore pulses import on a government-to- government basis was taken last week in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Pulses prices have been shooting up despite several government measures including imposition of stock holding limits on traders, creation of buffer stock up to eight lakh tonnes and ban on chana futures, among others.

As per the industry data, private traders have so far imported three million tonnes of pulses, which are expected to arrive between August and December.

Last year, private import of pulses were at a record 5.79 million tonnes.

Production of pulses is estimated to have declined to 17.06 million tonnes in 2015-16 crop year (July-June) due to two consecutive years of drought, while the demand stands at 23.5 million tonnes.

 

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com

Government Team Leaves For Mozambique To Explore Pulses Imports

NEW DELHI: To tame spiralling prices of pulses, government today sent a high-level delegation to Mozambique to explore short and long-term measures to import the commodities on a government-to-government basis.

Retail pulses prices have shot up as high as Rs 200 per kg owing to a seven million tonnes shortfall in the domestic output following two consecutive drought years.

"A high-level delegation led by Secretary, Consumer Affairs, Hem Pande today left for Mozambique. The delegation will explore both short-term and long-term measures to import pulses from Mozambique on a government-to-government basis," the Consumer Affairs Ministry said in a release.

The delegation comprises senior officials from the Commerce and Agriculture Ministries as well as from state-run MMTCBSE -1.17 %, it said.

Already, another delegation is in Myanmar to discuss availability of pulses for import from there, it added.

The talks with Myanmar, which has about 50,000 tonnes of tur, are in advanced stage but the southeast Asian country is apprehensive of committing pulses supply to India in the absence of adequate infrastructure, according to traders.

 
Unlike India, Myanmar does not have public trading agencies like MMTC and STC, they added.

Besides Mozambique, India is also exploring options in other African nations like Malawi to lease farms for growing pulses to meet India's demand.

A decision to explore pulses import on a government-to- government basis was taken last week in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Pulses prices have been shooting up despite several government measures including imposition of stock holding limits on traders, creation of buffer stock up to eight lakh tonnes and ban on chana futures, among others.

As per the industry data, private traders have so far imported three million tonnes of pulses, which are expected to arrive between August and December.

Last year, private import of pulses were at a record 5.79 million tonnes.

Production of pulses is estimated to have declined to 17.06 million tonnes in 2015-16 crop year (July-June) due to two consecutive years of drought, while the demand stands at 23.5 million tonnes.

 

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com