Ningbo’s foreign trade hits record levels in 2018

Glovis Sonic, a large ro-ro ship arrives at a port in Meishan Port Area in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Aug 6, 2018 to carry 850 Geely cars for export. [Photo/zj.zjol.com]

The foreign trade of Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province hit a record high in 2018, according to official statistics recently released by Ningbo Customs.

The city's foreign trade amounted to over 857 billion yuan ($126 billion) in 2018, an increase of nearly 100 billion yuan, or up 12.9 percent from a year earlier, surpassing the national and provincial foreign trade growth numbers of 9.7 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.

An important contributor to the exceptional growth is the city's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which take up 90 percent of the city's foreign trade entities and 80 percent of whom export to the United States. 

The continuing innovation of the city's SMEs empowered them with significant brand advantages that helped them survive the Sino-US trade war during the year. 

Statistics show that the city's small and micro businesses realized a year-on-year increase of 12.6 percent, 18.9 percent and 52.9 percent in number, profit and authorized patent, respectively in the first three quarters of last year.