Shanghai kick-starts new year with robust foreign trade growth

SHANGHAI, March 17 (Xinhua) -- China's economic hub Shanghai saw its foreign trade expand 22 percent to a total of 674.5 billion yuan (about 106.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months of 2022, according to data from customs authorities.

During the period, the municipality's exports rose by 24.5 percent to about 279.5 billion yuan, while imports went up 20.3 percent to 395 billion yuan.

The European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United States were among the largest trading partners of Shanghai from January to February.

Notably, the city registered surging exports of automobiles and mobile phones in the first two months of this year, increasing by 242 percent and 289 percent year on year respectively.

High-tech and new-technology products including integrated circuits and automatic data processing equipment and its components accounted for 29.8 percent of its total import value, according to the local customs.