The total value of Zhanjiang's exports and imports from January to July reached 21.43 billion yuan ($3.12 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 4.9 percent, according to statistics released by Zhanjiang Customs.

In terms of trade methods, the import and export of general trade in the first seven months of the year saw an increase of 1.6 percent to 17.18 billion yuan, while that of bonded logistics reached 2.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.7 percent.

In terms of enterprise categories, State-owned enterprises in Zhanjiang had a total import-export volume of 7.58 billion yuan in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 11.6 percent.

In terms of major commodities, the import of iron ore and seafood saw an increase from January to July.

The major foreign trade partners of Zhanjiang were Australia, Brazil, and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. From January to July, Zhanjiang's imports and exports to Australia reached 3.26 billion yuan, increasing by 3.2 percent year-on-year, while those to India saw a year-on-year increase of 2.2 percent to 1.34 billion yuan.

Zhanjiang Customs has launched 21 measures, including cutting taxes and administrative fees, as well as innovating supervision models, to help enterprises in the city resume production and to reduce the impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on foreign trade. The measures also are designed to advance the construction of major projects in the city like the BASF (Guangdong) Integrated Base project.