Shanghai's foreign trade up 26.2% in May

SHANGHAI -- Shanghai, China's economic hub, saw its foreign trade soar 26.2 percent year-on-year to 348.1 billion yuan ($48.6 billion) in May, customs data shows.

In the first five months, the total value of Shanghai's foreign trade was 1.74 trillion yuan, up 15.8 percent year-on-year.

Taking a closer look, the value of Shanghai's exports totaled 702.4 billion yuan, up 19.8 percent year-on-year, and the value of its imports was 1.04 trillion yuan, up 13.2 percent year-on-year.

From January to May, Shanghai's imports and exports to the European Union, its largest trading partner, totaled 357.23 billion yuan, up 19.1 percent year on year and accounting for 20.5 percent of the city's total imports and exports. The trade value between Shanghai and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States and Japan during the same period totaled 221.64 billion yuan, 200.67 billion yuan and 161.82 billion yuan, respectively, up 5.7 percent, 9.7 percent and 14.3 percent year-on-year.

In the first five months, Shanghai exported 490.5 billion yuan of mechanical and electrical products, up 27 percent year on year and accounting for 69.8 percent of the city's total export value.

Imports of consumer goods, which accounted for 22.8 percent of the city's total import value from January to May, registered year-on-year growth of 19.1 percent.