Category: National/International

The economic pundits may be projecting the spectre of a serious slowdown spell in the near run (particularly exhibited by the consistent dip in automobile sales since the beginning of the year) but CBRE South Asia’s ‘India Industrial and Logistics Market View, H1 2019’ report has broadly underlined business as usual scenario in the logistics leasing space.  As per the report, logistics leasing in the country recorded a hefty 31% annual growth crossing 13 million sq. ft. Leading metros like Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore accounted for more than 60% of leasing activity and…

Read More

With US-China trade dispute a major contributing factor, the demand in the global air freight market has consistently declined for past eight months. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) data for June, demand measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTKs), decreased by 4.8% in June 2019 as against the corresponding month last year. “Signs of a modest recovery in recent months appear to have been premature, with the June contraction broad-based across all regions with the exception of Africa. Capacity growth remains subdued and the cargo load factor continues…

Read More

Despite tough market conditions, India’s overall exports (Merchandise and Services combined) during April-July rose to $181.47billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 3.13per cent over the same period last year. Exports in July 2019 were $26.3billion, as compared to $25.75billion in July 2018, exhibiting a positive growth of 2.25per cent. Responding to marginal rebound in July, 2019 merchandise exports data, exporters association FIEO’s President, Sharad Kumar Saraf said that growth in exports shows resilience of the Indian exporting community even during such tough times and sluggishness in the global economy. He,…

Read More

India-headquartered International Solar Alliance (ISA) has launched a new initiative meant to promote cold chain facilities and systems in member countries with the use of solar power, Ritwik Sinha reports.   The ISA Solar Cooling Initiative (I-SCI), unveiled early this week in New Delhi, would primarily deal with setting up of cool community hubs at strategic locations in India and other member countries. Such hubs would be multi-functional units including providing support to local farmers in storage and sortation of their perishable produce, acting as vital cog in the farm-to-fork value chain.…

Read More

DP World has reported handling 35.8 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) across its global portfolio of container terminals in the first half of 2019, with gross container volumes growing by 0.5% year-on-year on a reported basis and 0.5% on a like-for-like basis.   Strong performance across Asia Pacific, Indian Subcontinent and Africa drove growth in 2Q2019, but weaker volumes in the UAE and Australia offset this trend.   Consolidated volumes in 2Q2019 grew by 10.6% on a reported basis but down 0.6% on a like-for-like basis. The strong reported growth…

Read More

India’s gold demand in the April-June 2019 quarter saw an increase of 14 per cent on a year-on-year basis, but it might remain muted in the next two quarters. Among the reasons for a weak outlook are high domestic prices. The rates, already high in international markets, will increase further in India on account of the 2.5 per cent import duty increase announced in Union Budget 2019 earlier this month. This report was published by GFMS, a Reuters initiative. According to GFMS Gold Survey: H1 2019 Review and Outlook, published by the Refinitive today,…

Read More

The Government’s decision to create a sugar buffer stock of four million tonnes for a year would not only help industry financially, but also improve the demand-supply situation in the domestic market, said rating agency ICRA in a statement. “According to our estimates, the closing sugar stocks for sugar year 2018-19 (October 2018-September 2019) would be high at around 14.5 million tonnes. The direct impact of this move by way of compensating mills for the carrying cost alone would translate into a higher profit before tax margin by about 1.5-1.8…

Read More