The coastal city of Xiamen in East China's Fujian province posts a year-on-year growth of 3.9 percent in its foreign trade in the first half of this year. [Photo/VCG]

Xiamen's foreign trade volume surged 3.9 percent to 308.18 billion yuan ($44.22 billion) in the first half of this year, an encouraging sign of the city's economic recovery in the post-pandemic period.

Statistics show that the city's imports and exports in June hit a record high, with foreign trade volume amounting to 63.35 billion yuan.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United States and the European Union were Xiamen's top three trading partners in the first half of this year, contributing to 41.9 percent of the city's total import and export value.

Xiamen has also made great efforts to explore new export markets and has seen robust growth in its foreign trade with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, with the trade volume rising by 5.1 percent year-on-year to 97.78 billion yuan from January to June.

State-owned enterprises in Xiamen played a leading role in stabilizing foreign trade, with the total trade volume reaching 105.22 billion yuan in the first half, a year-on-year growth of 32.7 percent, and accounting for 34.1 percent of the city's total foreign trade volume.

The export of textile products, electronic components and automobile spare parts recorded a year-on-year growth of 170 percent, 20.4 percent and 39 percent respectively, while the import of metallic mineral ore, agricultural products and coal grew by 45.8 percent, 40.1 percent and 48.6 percent year-on-year, indicating that Xiamen has further optimized its trade structure.

Additionally, foreign trade of featured products such as granite materials and light-emitting diode lamps ranked first across the country.

In the first half of the year, Xiamen rolled out an array of favorable policies to relieve the financial pressure on enterprises amid the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the better-than-expected foreign trade performance from January to June.