Shanghai Foreign Trade Approaches US $70 Billion in First Eight Months

According to the latest statistics from Shanghai Customs, from January to August this year, the foreign trade volume of Shanghai port hit 69.663 billion US dollars, 51.8% more than the same period of 1999, with import 30.509 billion US dollar and export 39.154 billion US dollar, up 61.2% and 45.2% respectively compared with the same period of last year.

For the first eight months, foreign trade in the Shanghai Port is characterized by the following 3 aspects:

Firstly, Common trade and processing trade continued rising; the growth rate of import in foreign invested equipment was accelerating, and import of storage goods for duty-bonded zone mounted up greatly.

Secondly, export volume for such market as Japan, Europe and the United States presented a momentum of blooming increase.

Thirdly, import for mechanic and electric products, raw materials and energy increased rapidly, while export for mechanic and electric products, services and textile products mounted up all round. Among the imported merchandise, mechanic and electric products hit 16.43 billion US dollars, which is more than half of the total, up 54% compared with the same period of last year. Other merchandises with fast increase were paper pulp, wools, raw materials, synthetic fibre for textile use, crude oil, finished oil, elementary plastic, steels and copper. Among the exported merchandise, mechanic and electric products hit 15.841 billion US dollars, 47.1% more than the same period of 1999.

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