Top Commodity Partner Matrix

Steel products capture the highest share of India’s exports. More than 37% of the total steel products exports are concentrated in the top five countries. They are Nepal, Italy, China, the USA, and Vietnam. Minerals are the second largest exported product. China, Korea, and Japan are the major demand drivers for Indian minerals followed by Indonesia and Bangladesh. These countries import more than half of the minerals that India exports.

India’s top imported products and their respective top destinations, 2021 (million tonnes)

On the import side, Chemical products are the top cargo being imported by India. In 2021, the country imported 22.4 million tonnes of chemicals out of which half of the quantity was from its top five import sources. They are China, the USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Malaysia.

Food products are the second major commodity group that India imports. In 2021, about 80% of the import requirements were sourced from the top five countries with about 25% being imported from Malaysia and Indonesia (25% each).

Major trade partners

China remains the top import source for India. However, on the export side, Bangladesh tops in terms of export destinations. China has been consistently on the top position over the last decade. Bangladesh however, has increased its ranking in India’s export from 5th position in 2011 to 1st position in 2021.

The US has consistently remained at the third position in India’s export market while export to Nepal has increased in last decade. Nepal was at the 15th position in 2011 and reached 4th position in 2021.

On the import side, China retained its first position over the last decade. In 2021, India sourced 17.5% of its requirements from China followed by the UAE (7.2%) and the USA (6.3%).

The noteworthy trend as seen from the below figure, is that the country has started to import more from Southeast Asian countries over the past decade. For example, Singapore increased its rank from 19th position in 2011 to 8th in 2021. Similarly, Thailand increased its rank from 15th position in 2011 to 9th in 2021. Malaysia and Indonesia are still in the top 5 import sources, however there has been a slight dip of one rank for each country in 2021.

For more such insightful articles read our South Asia Container Market Report 2022 at the below link: