U.S.-India trade unaffected by economic woes thus far

U.S.-India trade unaffected by economic woes thus far Troubled times in the U.S. economy have so far not impacted India-U.S. trade, according to a report Thursday in Live Mint.
   Indian exports to U.S. East Coast ports grew 10 percent in the first half of 2008 over the same period in 2007. Despite a 14 percent decline in exports to the U.S. West Coast, overall numbers were robust because the vast majority of services connecting India to North America call at East Coast ports.
   Cargo has grown while space in vessels has become tighter, A. Chopra, senior vice president of container services at the Shipping Corp. of India, told the newspaper.
   “Shippers looking to ship cargo to the U.S. earlier had a choice of shipping lines,” he said. “But today, they have to beg shipping lines to get space.”
   Part of the problems is that SCI, along with its partners OOCL, Emirates Shipping Line and Zim, suspended an India/Middle East/U.S. East Coast service earlier this year because of overcapacity in the trade.
   Freight rates have risen accordingly, from about $1,000 per TEU to nearly double that, Chopra said.
   Chopra told Live Mint that SCI and its partners abandoned the service in part because of little return cargo from the United States, indicating that 60 percent of capacity returned empty.
   But Dirk Visser, senior shipping consultant with Netherlands-based Dynamar BV, said Thursday at the South Asia Ports, Logistics and Shipping 2008 conference in Mumbai that the volume imbalance between the Indian Subcontinent and North America was only 7 percent in 2007.
   With U.S. exports more attractive this year due to the weakened dollar, it’s hard to imagine the gap getting too wide.