The busy Xiamen Port in East China's Fujian province [Photo/VCG]

The foreign trade volume of East China's Fujian Province rose 5.4 percent year-on-year to 1.08 trillion yuan ($154.59 billion) in the first 10 months of the year, according to Fuzhou and Xiamen customs.

From January to October, Fujian's exports totaled 680.88 billion yuan, growing by 8.7 percent year-on-year, while imports increased 0.3 percent to 402.41 billion yuan.

The province's trade structure has continued to be optimized with its general trade volume rising 6.4 percent to 794.52 billion yuan, accounting for 73.3 percent of Fujian's total general trade volume in the Jan-Oct period.

The private sector, already the primary body of Fujian's foreign trade, recorded a foreign trade volume of 534.71 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 12.6 percent, accounting for 49.4 percent of the province's total value of imports and exports during the period. The foreign trade volume of State-owned enterprises rose 8.5 percent from the previous year to 194.82 billion yuan.

Fujian has made substantial progress in sharing high-quality development with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Trade with BRI countries totaled 371.38 billion yuan, rising 12.7 percent year-on-year.

The data also indicated that exports of labor-intensive products, as well as mechanical and electrical products climbed to 254.22 billion yuan and 247.66 billion yuan respectively, while exports of agricultural products fell 5.2 percent to 50.63 billion yuan.

Fujian's iron ore and crude oil imports saw a significant increase of 11.9 percent and 29.1 percent in this period, while imports of mechanical and electrical products was 89.7 billion yuan, down 23.1 percent.