India’s Top 10 Exports 2018

Strategically located near highly populated trading partners including China, Pakistan and
Bangladesh, the Republic of India shipped US$323.1 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2018.
That dollar amount reflects a 1.7% improvement since 2014 and a 9.2% gain from 2017 to 2018.

Based on estimates from the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, India’s exported goods
plus services represent 19.1% of total Indian economic output or Gross Domestic Product. That
metric includes re-exports. The analysis below focuses on exported products only.

From a continental perspective, almost half (49.3%) of Indian exports by value were delivered to
fellow Asian countries. Another 19.3% was sold to European importers while 18% went to North
America. Smaller percentages went to Africa (8.3%), Latin America (2.9%) excluding Mexico but
including the Caribbean, then Oceania (1.3%) led by Australia.

Given India’s population of 1.297 billion people, its total $323.1 billion in 2018 exports translates to
roughly $250 for every resident in the vast South Asian country.

India’s unemployment rate was 6.1% for 2018, according to Trading Economics.

India’s Top 10 Exports

The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Indian global shipments
during 2018. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall
exports from India.

Mineral fuels including oil: US$48.3 billion (14.9% of total exports)

Gems, precious metals: $40.1 billion (12.4%)

Machinery including computers: $20.4 billion (6.3%)

Vehicles: $18.2 billion (5.6%)

Organic chemicals: $17.7 billion (5.5%)

Pharmaceuticals: $14.3 billion (4.4%)

Electrical machinery, equipment: $11.8 billion (3.6%)

Iron, steel: $10 billion (3.1%)

Cotton: $8.1 billion (2.5%)

Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $8.1 billion (2.5%)

India’s top 10 exports accounted for just over three-fifths (61%) of the overall value of its global
shipments.

Mineral fuels including oil was the fastest growing among the top 10 export categories, up 34.5%
from 2017 to 2017. Notably, exports of Indian refined petroleum oils and electrical energy were
behind this acceleration.

Close behind in second place for improving Indian export sales was electrical machinery and
equipment which gained 33.9%.

India’s shipments of organic chemicals recorded the third-fastest gain in value up 30.7% year over
year, ahead of the 22.5% sales expansion for the machinery including computers category.

There were three declining top categories for Indian exports: iron and steel via its -14.7% drop,
clothing and accessories (down -9.6%) then gems and precious metals (down -5.8%) mainly due to
India’s plummeting international sales of gold.

Note that the results listed above are at the categorized two-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS)
code level. For a more granular view of exported goods at the four-digit HTS code level, see the
section Searchable List of India’s Most Valuable Export Products further down near the bottom of
this article.

2018 Value
Rank India's Export Product Change
(US$)

1 Processed petroleum oils $46.8 billion +34.2%

2 Diamonds (unmounted/unset) $25.6 billion +4%

3 Medication mixes in dosage $12.8 billion +10.6%

4 Jewelry $12.4 billion -3%

5 Rice $7.4 billion +4.5%

6 Cars $7.2 billion +8.9%

7 Automobile parts/accessories $5.1 billion +15.3%

8 Crustaceans (including lobsters) $4.5 billion -6.3%

9 Cyclic hydrocarbons $4.3 billion +86.8%

10 Yarn (85%+ cotton) $3.8 billion +13.5%