In the first quarter of this year, Qingdao's foreign trade totaled 195.86 billion yuan ($29.57 billion), an increase of 9.6 percent year-on-year, and accounted for 27.6 percent of Shandong's foreign trade value, according to statistics from Qingdao customs.

Foreign containers are unloaded at Qingdao Port in Shandong province. [Photo/Qingdao News]

During this period, the city's exports totaled 115.1 billion yuan, up 16.6 percent, while imports reached 80.76 billion yuan, up 0.9 percent.

In March, the import and export volume of Qingdao reached 63.56 billion yuan, up 0.6 percent year-on-year.

From January to March, the imports and exports of general trade in Qingdao reached 131.13 billion yuan, up by 7.2 percent, accounting for 67 percent of the city's total. Imports and exports of bonded logistics totaled 32.04 billion yuan, up 46.9 percent, while imports and exports of processing trade reached 26.78 billion yuan, down 11.1 percent.

Qingdao boasts a thriving foreign trade environment. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Private enterprises continued to dominate the city's foreign trade. In the first quarter, the import and export of Qingdao's private enterprises reached 129.07 billion yuan, up 12.6 percent and accounted for 65.9 percent of the city's total.

Imports and exports of foreign-invested enterprises reached 38.54 billion yuan, down 4.6 percent. The foreign trade volume of State-owned enterprises reached 28.13 billion yuan, up 21.5 percent.

During this period, the imports and exports exchanged between Qingdao and ASEAN, the United States and the European Union, the city's top three trade markets, were 30.1 billion yuan, 24.16 billion yuan and 21.9 billion yuan, respectively, up 4.8 percent, 6.5 percent, and down 0.4 percent.

The city's trade with other RCEP members reached 74.26 billion yuan, up 8.9 percent. Its trade with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative totaled 59.7 billion yuan, up 9.4 percent.