The volume of imports and exports of Shanghai with participating countries and regions of the Belt and Road Initiative increased markedly – while that with European Union and the United States diminished in the first eight months of 2024.

According to Shanghai Customs on Sept 18, the city's import and export volumes with BRI countries and regions hit close to 1 trillion yuan ($141.9 billion), representing a year-on-year increase of 4.3 percent.

Meanwhile, import and export volumes with the EU and the US stood at 530.9 billion yuan and 313.3 billion yuan in the period – down by 6.9 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.

During the eight months, import and export volumes with ASEAN countries, South Korea and China's Taiwan region also increased.

What's more, the value Shanghai's total imports and exports reached 2.81 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.6 percent on the same period last year.

Of that, exports amounted to 1.17 trillion yuan, growing by 2.9 percent, while imports totaled 1.64 trillion yuan, down 1.1 percent.

Foreign-funded business enterprises accounted for 57.1 percent of the value of total imports and exports of Shanghai during the period.

Meanwhile, private enterprises contributed over 30 percent to the total, while State-owned enterprises made up more than 10 percent.

Statistics show that mechanical and electrical products were significant items in Shanghai's foreign trade. In the first eight months of this year, mechanical and electrical products took up 68.6 percent of the total value of exports and more than 40 percent of total imports.

Source: chinanews.com