The Zhuangyuanao port area in Wenzhou, a coastal city in East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/chinaport.com]
Wenzhou Customs announced on May 24 that from January to April this year, the city's total foreign trade value reached 87.73 billion yuan ($13.02 billion), up 31.7 percent year on year.
Exports and imports were up 31.8 percent and 31.2 percent, reaching 72.90 billion yuan and 14.83 billion yuan, respectively.
In April alone, Wenzhou's foreign trade value was 23.55 billion yuan, up 35.3 percent. Specifically, exports reached 19.04 billion yuan, up 39 percent, while imports reached 4.51 billion yuan, up 25.7 percent.
Exports of mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive products saw positive growth in the first four months, while imports of resource products such as ferroalloy, steel, plastics in primary form, and logs increased while those of consumer goods declined.
ASEAN, the European Union and the United States remained the top three export markets for Wenzhou, as they registered export values of 5.34 billion yuan, 3.07 billion yuan and 3.02 billion yuan in April, up 120 percent, 16.4 percent, and 72.2 percent, respectively.
Private enterprises were still the main force driving the growth of imports and exports in Wenzhou. In April, the foreign trade value of local private enterprises was 22.35 billion yuan, up 35.6 percent year on year, accounting for 94.9 percent of the city's total. The growth rate, which was 26.1 percentage points higher than the provincial average, drove Zhejiang's import-and-export growth up 33.7 percentage points.
