A delegation from the Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC India), comprising of 16 leading Indian machine tools and technology firms, finalised their visit to Egypt on Saturday. The delegation also participated in the MACTECH exhibition held from 13 to 16 November. The Indian pavilion in the exhibition was organised by the EEPC India, the premier trade and investment promotion organisation in the engineering sector sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, in association with the embassy of India in Cairo. The participating Indian companies represent various segments of engineering products, including metal forming, machine tools, industrial tools, welding and cutting equipment technology, and machinery makers. India stands 10th in production and 8th in machine tool consumption in the world. In 2019/20, the sector is expected to grow there at a rate of 25% in production and 20% in consumption. India is set to become an important player in the global machine tools industry and is expected to see substantial increase in the manufacture of high-end products, as per the Gardner's World Machine Tool Output Survey 2018. The automobile sector, a major user of machine tools, will continue to create the major demand for the Indian machine tools industry, emergence of new sectors such as aerospace manufacturing, medical devices, defence, power generation, off-road equipment, electronic hardware, would also contribute towards the growth in demand for machine tools in India. Major Indian cities that contribute almost 90% of total metal cutting machine production are Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Chennai. On the other hand, 90% of total metal forming machine production is from the cities of Baroda, Coimbatore, Batala, Jalandhar, Pune, and Ludhiana. In the machine tool sector, India is among the top fifteen exporting countries to Egypt. India exported $2.07m worth machine tools to Egypt in 2018 constituting 1.1% of Egypt's total imports. Egypt has traditionally been one of India's most important trading partners in the Arab-African region during the year 2018/19. The bilateral trade between India and Egypt increased by 23% to reach the value of $4.56bn in 2018/19, compared to $3.68bn in 2017/18. India is Egypt's 9th largest trading partner, 8th largest importer of Egyptian goods, and 10th largest exporter to Egypt. Moreover, the India-Egypt relationship is witnessing a positive development recently, a source of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), told Daily News Egypt over his visit, adding that officials from the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) held fruitful meetings in Egypt early November over their participation at the "Regional Conclave on India – West Asia and North Africa (WANA)" in Cairo. Since 2005, the CII has been organising the annual CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India Africa Project Partnership with support of Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry over the last 13 years.
