BEIJING - China's foreign trade remained stable growth in the first half of this year by expanding 3.9 percent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Friday.

Total foreign trade volume reached 14.67 trillion yuan ($2.14 trillion) in H1. Export expanded 6.1 percent while import rose 1.4 percent, GAC data showed.

China saw its trade surplus widen by 41.6 percent year-on-year to 1.23 trillion yuan during the same period.

China imported more major commodities in the first half of this year.

The country's imports of crude oil climbed 8.8 percent year-on-year to 245 million tons during the period.

A total of 46.92 million tons of natural gas were imported during the period, up 11.6 percent from one year earlier. Imports of coal increased 5.8 percent year-on-year to 154 million tons.

However, iron ore imports during the Jan-June period declined 5.9 percent to 499 million tons. Soybean imports also went down 14.7 percent year-on-year to 38.27 million tons.