Qingdao's foreign trade volume reached 132.1 billion yuan ($20.89 billion) in the first two months of the year, up 14.3 percent year-on-year and accounted for 29.5 percent of the provincial total, according to statistics from Qingdao Customs.

During this period, the city's exports amounted to 80.09 billion yuan, up 18.3 percent, while its imports totaled 52.01 billion yuan, an increase of 8.7 percent.

Workers help moor a freighter in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo by Yu Fangping/For China Daily]

In the first two months, Qingdao's general trade imports and exports reached 88.89 billion yuan, up 8 percent, accounting for 67.3 percent of the city's total foreign trade value.

Private enterprises continue to dominate the city's foreign commerce. During this period, the imports and exports of Qingdao's private enterprises reached 87.77 billion yuan, up 15.2 percent, accounting for 66.4 percent of the city's total.

The imports and exports of foreign-invested enterprises in the city totaled 25.07 billion yuan, down 2.1 percent. The figure of State-owned enterprises reached 19.18 billion yuan, up 42.9 percent.

Qingdao's import and export to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States and the European Union, the top three trade markets, were 19.33 billion yuan, 16.69 billion yuan and 14.78 billion yuan, respectively, up 11.3 percent, 2.8 percent and 2.4 percent.

Qingdao's imports and exports to other RCEP member countries reached 48.82 billion yuan, up 13.3 percent, accounting for 37 percent of the city's total.

The city's trade with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 40.35 billion yuan, up 18.6 percent, accounting for 30.5 percent of the city's total.