NEW DELHI: It all boils down to one commodity: Oil products. Asean has emerged as the fastest growing region for India’s exports due to a spurt in petro product shipments – mainly to Singapore — while the European Union saw the slowest pace of increase during AprilAug as export of petroleum products fell.Latest data available with the commerce department showed that India’s exports to Asean went up 56% during the first five months of the fiscal year as oil product shipments soared 2.4 times to over $6.1 billion, with Singapore accounting for almost threefourths of it. What also helped was a 20-fold jump in computer hardware to $1.4 billion to Asean countries and strong growth of electric machinery (82% to $1.6 billion) and buffalo meat (42% to $1 billion)Since March, countries have recalibrated their energy purchases due to the disruption in West Asia.
European Union Sees Slowest Pace Of Increase In April-Aug
In contrast, when it comes to EU, oil product exports fell 21% to $4.6 billion as the Netherlands cut back on purchases from India. While the Netherlands was the top destination for Indian fuel, with exports of $5.3 billion during April-Aug 2025, it has now slipped to the third place, behind Singapore and Tanzania, as the value of shipments crashed 47% to $2.8 billion.A part of the impact in EU was offset by Spain and Italy. In April-Aug, India’s exports to Spain rose 54% to $3.5 billion, with oil products jumping to $1.1 billion during the period, as against $172 million ayear ago – an over six-fold increase. In case of Italy, the jump was even more dramatic as petroleum product exports rose from $4 million during April-Aug 2025 to $659 million so far this year.Oil exports to North America fell 7% to $1.9 billion and the 8% rise in overall exports to the region, largely the US, was led by iPhones as telecom instruments rose 29% to over $11 billion, accounting for 23.5% of the exports to the region. Pharma exports too fell 5% to just under $4 billion.Exports to the region slowed as the value of shipments to the US was up just over 6% to $42.8 billion, data showed.
