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

Over the past decade, Shandong's foreign trade expanded fast and showed strong resilience and competitiveness, say local officials.

According to Qingdao customs, from 2012 to 2021, the overall scale of foreign trade in Shandong grew steadily, with cumulative import and export volumes hitting 18.9 trillion yuan ($2.63 trillion), an increase of 124.6 percent over the figure of the 2002-11 period.

Shandong's foreign trade value increased from 1.55 trillion yuan in 2012 to 2.93 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of 89 percent at an average annual growth rate of 6.7 percent. The proportion of Shandong's foreign trade in the national total increased from 6.3 percent in 2012 to 7.5 percent in 2021.

Mechanical and electrical products are the main export commodities of Shandong. Their export value increased from 360.9 billion yuan in 2012 to 757.15 billion yuan in 2021, and accounted for more than 40 percent of the total export value of the province, with an average annual growth rate of 7.6 percent.

In the past decade, the import of energy and resource commodities in Shandong maintained a fast growth rate. In 2021, the import value of crude oil, metal ore, pulp, and copper materials accounted for 47.8 percent of the provincial total.

With construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, Shandong has expanded emerging trade markets. In 2021, its trade with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 939.1 billion yuan, up 41 percent year-on-year and accounting for 32 percent of the province's total foreign trade.