Engineering goods exports that make up nearly one-fourth of India’s total goods outbound shipments slipped nearly 9.4 per cent to the US but registered an overall 2.93 per cent increase in September due to resilience in the European market, official data showed on Thursday.
Goods exports from the segment jumped $10.11 billion in September 2025 compared to $9.8 billion last year as steel & iron and automobile exports jumped 17 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively. However, industrial machinery like boilers and parts exports slipped by 18 per cent.
Data showed that exports to the US slipped 9 per cent to $1.4 billion and to the UAE slipped 5.3 per cent to $636.86 million, but shipments to Germany, UK, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Italy jumped between 18 per cent to 45 per cent.
‘Rupee depreciated over 5% in Sep’
Among the reasons that could explain total goods exports staying in the positive territory despite steep tariffs could be the steep depreciation of the Indian rupee. Data shared by the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC) showed that the rupee depreciated nearly 5 per cent in September compared to 2024.
“Rupee depreciated vis-à-vis the US Dollar for the fourth straight month to September 2025, both on a monthly as well as yearly basis. Rupee depreciated vis-à-vis the US Dollar by 0.91 per cent in September 2025 over the previous month and a much higher 5.38 per cent on a year-on-year basis,” the EEPC report said.
The rupee closed the month of September at 88.79, just a step away from its all-time weakest level of 88.80. Capital outflow due to uncertainty over US pressure on India in the form of higher tariffs and warnings on oil purchase from Russia weighed on the rupee. “Higher government borrowing and a rise in gold imports added fuel to it. Despite a weakening dollar index, the rupee is down,” EEPC said in its report.
Engineering goods exports to US slip in september
‘South-South trade supportive’
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The EEPC report said that global trade expanded by almost $500 billion in the first six months of 2025 despite significant threats regarding the USA’s tariff imposition, protectionist policies in the EU, and ongoing geographical conflicts.
“Global merchandise trade grew by almost 2 to 2.5 per cent quarter over quarter. This is indeed also reflected by India’s engineering export performance – Engineering exports continued its growth run for the fourth straight month to September 2025. India’s exports to Sub-Saharan Africa, ASEAN, Latin America and ASEAN regions gained significantly — this corroborates with the UNCTAD global trade update, which states that the major driver of global trade has been South-South trade,” the report said.
Among India’s major export destinations, exports to the USA declined mainly due to the imposition of reciprocal tariffs, but it needs to be noted here that the impact of the Section 232 tariff has been low, especially on the steel and aluminium sector, as during September 2025, exports to the US for both sectors grew significantly, the EEPC report said.
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