Zhejiang's foreign trade up 6.8% in Q1

Containers full of various products are ready to be exported to foreign countries at the port in Zhejiang. [Photo/cztv.com.cn]

East China's Zhejiang province saw its foreign trade volume exceed 663.57 billion yuan ($99 billion) in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 6.8 percent, according to statistics from the Hangzhou customs office on April 18.

In this total, the value of imported goods grew 1.8 percent to 172.1 billion yuan while that of exported goods reached 491.47 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.6 percent.

The growth rate of Zhejiang's foreign trade in the first three months of 2019 ranked top among major coastal provinces and municipalities in China, and the import and export value of the East China province accounted for 13 percent of the country's total.

Officials from Hangzhou customs office hold a news conference to announce the statistics of Zhejiang's foreign trade in the first quarter of this year in Hangzhou April 18. [Photo/cztv.com]

The European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Africa and Japan were the four major export destinations of Zhejiang products in the first quarter.

The trade value with countries involved in China's Belt and Road Initiative reached 222.15 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 10.5 percent.

Due to lingering trade frictions between China and the United States, Zhejiang saw a decrease of 6.8 percent in its trade with the developed country in the first three months.

According to analysis of exported goods, the sales of high-tech products, especially solar cells, maintained a robust growth momentum with an increase of 11.5 percent year-on-year. Solar cells manufactured in Zhejiang gained increasing popularity among overseas purchasers from January to March, up 47.8 percent compared with the previous year.