Xiamen foreign trade value hits monthly record in Jan

Statistics from Xiamen Customs show that Xiamen, East China's Fujian province saw a record high in import and export volume in January.

The foreign trade volume of the city grossed 56.54 billion yuan ($8.19 billion) in January, an increase of 4.1 percent over last year's figure.

Its export volume jumped 12.5 percent year-on-year to 33.69 billion yuan while import volume stood at 22.85 billion yuan for the same period.

Private companies took the lion's share of Xiamen's foreign trade value with 21.82 billion yuan, up by 6.1 percent year-on-year.

The import and export volume of State-owned companies in Xiamen surged 11.2 percent year-on-year to 14.4 billion yuan while that of foreign invested companies amounted to 20.31 billion yuan, down by 2.3 percent year-on-year.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (UN) were Xiamen's two largest foreign trading partners in January with import and export volumes of 9.53 billion yuan and 8.83 billion yuan respectively.

Meanwhile, the city's foreign trade value with Australia saw the fastest growth with 70.2 percent year-on-year to 4.17 billion yuan.

Mechanical and electrical, farm and iron mine products were Xiamen's most imported and mechanical, electrical and labor intensive products were its most exported over the same period.