From January to October this year, Xiamen's trade value with BRICS countries reached 76.46 billion yuan ($10.68 billion), up 26.3 percent year-on-year, and the total import value and export value reached 53.02 billion yuan and 23.44 billion yuan during the period, respectively.

In October, Xiamen's monthly foreign trade with BRICS countries hit 7.35 billion yuan, an increase of 21.5 percent year-on-year. The export value hit 2.23 billion yuan, up 21.2 percent year-on-year, and the import value stood at 5.12 billion yuan, an increase of 21.6 percent year-on-year.

In the first 10 months of this year, Xiamen boasted the most rapid foreign trade growth with Russia, South Africa and Brazil, with the total value reaching 27.77 billion yuan, 11.27 billion yuan and 23.37 billion yuan, respectively, an increase of 58.9 percent, 31.1 percent and 18.8 percent.

During the same period, its State-owned enterprises enjoyed the largest volume of foreign trade with BRICS counties as the total value surged to 43.83 billion yuan, up 33.1 percent year-on-year, and accounted for 57.3 percent of the total value created by all enterprises involved.

Xiamen's imports consisted mainly of metal ore, coal and agricultural products, which amounted to 14.4 billion yuan, 12.07 billion yuan and 10.21 billion yuan, respectively.

Xiamen's exports to BRICS countries consisted mainly of mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive products. During the period, Xiamen exported 9.17 billion yuan worth of mechanical and electrical products to BRICS countries and 5.98 billion yuan worth of labor-intensive products.

Customs officers supervise the sortation of containers at Xiamen Port. [Photo/WeChat account: xiamen_swj]