The foreign trade of the coastal city of Yantai in East China's Shandong province totaled 65.48 billion yuan ($9.52 billion) in the first two months of the year, increasing by 9.7 percent year-on-year and hitting a record high, data from Yantai Customs revealed on March 31.

During this period, private enterprises recorded 35.53 billion yuan in foreign trade, growing 6.1 percent year-on-year, which has played an important role in driving the city's foreign trade.

Foreign-funded companies in Yantai witnessed a robust growth in foreign trade, with a 25.6 percent year-on-year increase to 29.07 billion yuan from January to February.

Given the increasing risks of a global recession and a notable slowdown in external demand, Yantai has made continuous efforts to improve its business environment to help foreign trade enterprises explore the global market, spurring economic transformation and growth sustainability.

Thanks to the city's ever-improving business climate and simplified customs clearance procedures, the vehicle exports of SAIC-GM Dongyue Motor Company (Dongyue) in Yantai had increased from 17,000 units in 2014 to 124,000 in 2022.

With the fast-growing export volume, Dongyue had faced a heavy strain in ocean shipping capacity. As a result, local customs authorities set up an export supervised warehouse for the company. Products stored in the export supervised warehouse will be designated as exports and companies can handle customs formalities in a timely fashion, accelerating capital turnover and reducing logistics expenses.

The city has also stepped up efforts to integrate into the new national "dual-circulation" development paradigm by promoting the development of two-way logistics channels, including the Chinese-African liner and the Chinese-South Korea liner, which have played vital roles in stabilizing the city's foreign trade.

Currently, Yantai Port has become the largest trade port serving China-Africa trade, playing an important part in the Belt and Road Initiative.

In November 2021, a container ship is unloaded at an international container facility in Yantai Port, Shandong province. [Photo by Tang Ke/chinadaily.com.cn]