Containers are unloaded at Qingdao Port in Shandong province in March. [Photo by Yu Fangping/For China Daily] 

According to Qingdao Customs statistics, in the first eight months of 2023, Qingdao's foreign trade volume reached 584.16 billion yuan ($80.27 billion), an increase of 5.7 percent year-on-year. Its exports totaled 319.35 billion yuan, up 1.4 percent, while imports reached 264.81 billion yuan, up 11.3 percent.

During this period, Qingdao's imports and exports of general trade increased by 5.1 percent to 377.87 billion yuan, accounting for 64.7 percent of the city's total foreign trade value.

Its imports and exports of bonded logistics hit 110.35 billion yuan, up 15.4 percent, while the figure for processing trade reached 87.62 billion yuan, up 5.9 percent.

Private enterprises continue to dominate the city's foreign trade. During this period, the imports and exports of private enterprises in Qingdao reached 414.61 billion yuan, an increase of 11.7 percent. This accounted for 71 percent of the city's total foreign trade value.

Imports and exports of foreign-invested enterprises reached 107.78 billion yuan, up 3.5 percent, while the corresponding figure for State-owned enterprises was 61.65 billion yuan, down 20 percent.

Over this period, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union and the United States were the top three trading markets for Qingdao, with trade volume totaling 111.1 billion yuan, 65.55 billion yuan and 64.23 billion yuan, respectively, marking a jump of 16 percent, a rise of 7.7 percent and a drop of 0.6 percent.

The city's trade volume with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative climbed to 304.52 billion yuan, up 7.6 percent.