East China's Shandong province saw its foreign trade reach 710.65 billion yuan ($110.22 billion) in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 13.7 percent year-on-year, Shandong authorities said at a news conference held on April 18.

Of the total, the province's exports rose 22.2 percent year-on-year to 417.91 billion yuan, while imports gained 3.4 percent to nearly 292.74 billion yuan.

A US cargo ship docks at Qingdao Port in Shandong province. [Photo by Yu Shaoyue/For China Daily]

The development of regional foreign trade has become more coordinated in Shandong. The Jiaodong economic circle, provincial capital economic circle and Southern Shandong economic circle achieved 12.3 percent, 16.8 percent and 14.8 percent growth in foreign trade, respectively.

General trade remained stable, while bonded logistics imports and exports grew rapidly.

In the first quarter, Shandong's imports and exports through general trade reached 472.84 billion yuan, up 12.1 percent and accounted for 66.5 percent of the province's total. Imports and exports through bonded logistics stood at 119.37 billion yuan, up 50.4 percent and accounted for 16.8 percent of the province's total.

Private enterprises continued to dominate the province's foreign trade. Private enterprises' imports and exports in Shandong reached 505.39 billion yuan in the first quarter, up 18.1 percent and accounted for 71.1 percent of the total.

Foreign-invested enterprises' imports and exports reached 139.46 billion yuan, down 1.2 percent and accounted for 19.6 percent of the total. The foreign trade volume of State-owned enterprises reached 65.46 billion yuan, up 19.1 percent and accounted for 9.2 percent of the total.

During this period, Shandong's trade with ASEAN countries reached 116.56 billion yuan, up 37.2 percent. Trade with the US reached 81.51 billion yuan, up 11.7 percent, and trade with the EU totaled 67.76 billion yuan, up 9.6 percent.

Its trade with RCEP members, excluding China, reached 257.26 billion yuan, an increase of 20.9 percent. Its trade with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative totaled 247.38 billion yuan, up 25.1 percent.