Jinan sees steady growth of foreign trade in Jan-Oct

Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong province, saw a foreign trade volume of 181.52 billion yuan ($25.05 billion) in the first 10 months of this year, up 2.3 percent year-on-year, local authorities reported on Nov 21.

During the period, the city's exports totaled 124.73 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.7 percent, while imports dropped 12.4 percent to 56.79 billion yuan. The resulting trade surplus stands at 67.94 billion yuan, expanding by 41.8 percent.

In the first 10 months, the top five trading partners were the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Africa, Latin America, the European Union and the United States, accounting for 60 percent of the city's total trade value. The city's trade with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 107.48 billion yuan, up 14.4 percent year-on-year.

The city's export structure is gradually shifting towards advanced export-oriented economy through its high-value-added and high-tech sectors. In the first 10 months, the city exported high-tech products worth 23.57 billion yuan, an increase of 36.6 percent year-on-year.

The rapidly expanding China-Europe freight train service in Jinan has provided robust logistics support for the city's foreign trade. During the reporting period, China-Europe freight trains departing from Jinan completed 899 trips, marking a year-on-year increase of 24.3 percent, with 74,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) transported.

Russia and the five Central Asia countries continue to serve as the primary markets for these freight trains, recording trade values of 4.45 billion yuan and 1.6 billion yuan, respectively, which together accounted for 81.6 percent of the service's total trade value.