County Gulf Financial News

Even though the Strait of Hormuz is just about 33km wide at its narrowest point, about 20 million barrels of crude oil and refinery products would pass through it every day before the war in West Asia. This was roughly a quarter of all seaborne oil trade. Since late February, tanker traffic through the strait has fallen sharply, driving up the price of Brent crude and triggering an oil shock.

West Asia have already come to a halt due to the ongoing war, and the rising freight cost is acting as a stumbling block in exporting to other nations."We had a meeting with officials of DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade), commerce ministry, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India, and Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and highlighted the plight of basmati rice exporters,” said Ajay Bhalothia, general secretary, All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA).“We were assured by government stakeholders that the Ministry of Shipping would shortly meet major shipping line operators to address the escalating logistical challenges including high freight rates," Bhalothia added.Shipping disruptions, along with rising freight and insurance costs, are posing a significant threat to India’s nearly $6 billion basmati rice trade. The concern comes amid mounting uncertainty over consignments headed to the Gulf region, which accounts for about 60–70% of India’s total basmati exports.Another exporter, who was also in the meeting, confirmed the development.

₹6–7 until recently, has now climbed to ₹11–12 due to a PP shortage.Due to the shortage, per tonne cost of cement will increase by roughly ₹60–80, considering 20 bags of 50 kg each per tonne, said Sourav Mitra, partner, Oil and Gas, Grant Thornton Bharat.At the heart of the issue is polypropylene (PP), used to produce woven cement bags. Refineries in the Gulf region are increasingly diverting feedstock such as propane and butane toward liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production amid supply uncertainties, tightening PP availability.Bag manufacturers are currently receiving only about 60–70% of their contracted PP chip supplies, according to a Motilal Oswal report dated 18 March.

, traders say, can be chalked up to WTI’s location, far from where the oil is needed in Asia. Its lower price also reflects the higher shipping costs required to get it to Asian buyers, as well as angst that the U.S.

The West Asia crisis is taking a toll on Indian manufacturing and services sectors. Private sector companies are grappling with demand slowdown and input cost inflation.The seasonally adjusted HSBC Flash India Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) Composite Output Index fell to a nearly three-and-a-half year low of 56.5 in March from a final reading of 58.9 in February.The Flash PMI is an early, advanced estimate of economic activity in the manufacturing and services sectors.

Kalyan Jewellers, Joyalukkas and Jos Alukkas, are not buying fresh inventory and are feeling the heat of the crisis, according to the same people.Titan and Kalyan Jewellers declined to comment to Mint's queries. Queries mailed to Joyalukkas and Jos Alukkas did not elicit a response until press time.This setback amid the escalating war between the US-Israel and Iran comes at a crucial juncture, as Titan's Gulf business is in a turnaround phase.In the company's post-acquisition call, chief financial officer Ashok Sonthalia had said 2025 would be a “restructuring year”, with the business expected to remain earnings-dilutive until 2027, and turn positive only from 2028, making any delay more consequential.According to Titan's December earnings call, it has completed acquisition of a 67% stake in Dubai-based Damas Jewellery, marking the closure of the $283 million deal and indicating that all required regulatory approvals have been secured.

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As reports emerged last week on which ships Iran had let through the Strait of Hormuz, India-bound carriers of LPG among them, one group was no surprise: vessels carrying Iranian crude exports. By data analytics firm Kpler’s estimate, Iran’s oil shipments kept up an average daily pace of 1.3-1.4 million barrels in March amid hostilities with the US and Israel. Most of it was headed for China, reportedly, bought by small refiners paying in Chinese yuan.

”The back-and-forth was the latest demonstration of one of the dangers that AI technology has posed to global affairs: Not only can AI fakery deceive millions online, but real videos can also be dismissed as AI-generated lies,” a New York Times report said. The phenomenon, known as the “liar’s dividend,” has proliferated during the current West Asia conflict, with thousands of videos leaving watchers unable to tell the difference.As far as can be verified, Netanyahu appears hale and hearty.Meanwhile, Israel assassinated two top Iranians: Ali Larijani, a former nuclear negotiator and secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani, head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force.The killings underscore a problem highlighted by US President Donald Trump on Friday: there are few leaders left in Iran to negotiate an end to the war.

You might have heard that the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz is going to leave poor countries starving. That’s not quite right. The reality may be almost as serious, though—and China will be the victor.The theory stems from the importance of the Persian Gulf in the world’s fertilizer trade.

On 7 January, Mint made a case for reforming India’s highly inefficient regime of fertilizer production, pricing and distribution, and for switching over from product subsidization to income support for farmers. This imperative has since been sprung centre-stage by a war in West Asia that has disrupted our imports of urea and its feedstock gas, both of which form large shares of domestic usage and have seen global prices flare up.

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was killed along with his 44 top leaders. The US and Israel thought that like in Iraq, people would revolt in Iran. But the reverse happened.People took to the streets to mourn Khamenei’s death.

₹10.9 on 27 February, a day before the war.Investors purchase put options to protect their portfolios from downside risk. It is the opposite of a call option, which is purchased during bull markets.Demand for the 22,000 put is reflected in the rise of its open interest (OI)–a gauge of money flowing into a market–to 5.33 million contracts on Friday from 1.4 million when the war began.The US and Israel strikes and the retaliation by Iran across the Gulf region show no signs of abating.

Write to Shaina Mishkin at [email protected] WeekOn Monday, day 10 of the war in Iran, Gulf states cut oil output, global prices surged over $100 a barrel, and G-7 finance ministers met to discus the largest release of oil reserves ever. Iran named the late Ayatollah Khamenei’s son supreme leader. Stocks plunged, then reversed after President Trump said the war wouldn’t last “very long.” But stocks fell again as oil rose, despite the reserve release and U.S.

NEW DELHI: India’s steadily rising mobile phone exports, which generated $11 billion in revenue in the first six months of the current fiscal, are expected to take a multi-billion-dollar hit as a result of a prolonged impact of the Iran war on consumption, imports and freight transit in the Gulf region.Executives, analysts and brokerage firms estimate a loss of $2 billion-3 billion on India’s electronics exports, largely because electronics manufacturing services (EMS) companies export a sizeable quantity of mobile phones to the Gulf area—a key trade and consumption hub.Mobile phones are among the top five most-impacted commodities as a result of the Gulf nations and the West Asia region being directly affected in Israel and the US’s war on Iran, analysts Suvodeep Rakshit and Swarupjit Palit at brokerage firm Kotak Institutional Equities wrote in a note to investors on 6 March.The analysts cited India’s commerce ministry data to say that mobile phone exports to the Gulf and West Asia rose to $3.1 billion in FY25, accounting for 12% of the country’s net electronics exports. This entire chunk may be affected and EMS companies that rely significantly on mobile phone manufacturing may be substantially hit, at least in the current quarter and next.If the conflict continues, the entire $3 billion in export value may be wiped off in the next fiscal year, the Kotak analysts said.

“‘It depends’ is almost always the right answer to any big question,” said Linus Torvalds, the software genius behind the Linux operating system’s kernel. As the Indian rupee continues to weaken, one of today’s big questions is this: What policy options does India have? The right answer is that it depends—on how long the war continues. More specifically, on how long the Strait of Hormuz remains shut to oil tankers.

If proof were needed that even after decades of globalization, the world isn’t flat, Iran’s chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz is providing plenty. The opposing view might be summarized in four words, ‘The Revenge of Geography,’ the title of geopolitical analyst Robert Kaplan’s prescient book more than a decade ago.

As the conflict in West Asia has nearly frozen all trade movement through the Strait of Hormuz, Indian law firms have seen a surge in queries from companies seeking clarity on whether they can invoke a rare clause to mitigate risk—force majeure.It is a contractual provision that allows a party to suspend or avoid its obligations if an unforeseen event outside its control makes performance impossible. These may include war, government restrictions or major disruptions to shipping routes, if specifically covered in the contract.“The energy sector is reaching out the most, especially companies importing LNG (liquefied natural gas) and crude who now face stranded cargoes and unreliable shipping schedules,” said Charanya Lakshmikumaran, executive partner at Laxmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS).“The shipping and logistics sector is next, dealing with mounting delays, higher war-risk premiums and rerouted vessels,” she said.

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