New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS): A sharp rise in global demand for non-ferrous metals like copper, aluminium and zinc along with their products have aided India's engineering exports through the Covid-19 pandemic, an EEPC India analysis showed on Saturday.

Accordingly, the study showed a near 16 per cent increase in overall engineering exports during January 2021 over the same month last year.

The growth, report cited was influenced by a sharp rise of 66.66 per cent in shipments of copper or copper products to $138.50 million from $83.10 million.

Likewise, zinc and products witnessed a rise of 39 per cent in shipments to $72.17 million from $52 million.

Similarly, shipments of aluminium and products went up by 21 per cent to $512 million from $423 million for the month, on an annualised basis.

"The non-ferrous metals are in great demand in the international market thanks to their usage in electric vehicles and their batteries as the world moves towards cleaner energy," EEPC India Chairman Mahesh Desai said.

As per the analysis report, Malaysia, South Korea, China, the US and Singapore were the top destinations for export of non-ferrous metals from India.

"Iron and steel, the largest contributor to the country's engineering exports, too saw an impressive increase of 17.47 per cent in shipments during the month under review on Y-on-Y basis," EEPC India said in a statement.

"These shipments went up to USD 847 million from USD 721 million for the month."