Import and export trade in Gansu in July reached 3.46 billion yuan, up by 10.5 percent year-on-year, continuing the positive growth trend since June, according to Lanzhou Customs on Monday. This is the first instance of double-digit growth in the total value of foreign trade in a single month that the province has seen this year.

In the first seven months of this year, the total value of foreign trade in Gansu province stood at 20.48 billion yuan, down by 6.7 percent year-on-year and narrowing by 2.9 percent points from that of the first half of the year.

Kazakhstan was the top trade partner for the province from January to July. In the first seven months, Gansu's imports and exports to Kazakhstan reached 3.71 billion yuan, up by 22.5 percent year-on-year and accounting for 18.1 percent of its total foreign trade. In the same period, its imports and exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chile and Singapore increased by 91.1 percent, 96.3 percent and 64.2 percent respectively.

Imports and exports of State-owned enterprises picked up. In the first seven months, the import and export business of SOEs in Gansu reached 12.72 billion yuan, up by 2 percent year-on-year and accounting for 62.1 percent of its total foreign trade.

Agricultural exports continued to grow. In the first seven months, Gansu's export of agricultural products reached 1.06 billion yuan, up by 18.8 percent year-on-year, among which vegetable exports totaled 160 million yuan and fruit and vegetable juice exports reached 120 million yuan, registering increases of 7.8 percent and 270 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Imports of mechanical and electrical products and new materials of nickel and cobalt increased. In the first seven months, Gansu imported mechanical and electrical products worth 1.86 billion yuan, up by 16.4 percent year-on-year. Imports of new materials of nickel and cobalt increased 92.9 percent year-on-year to 1.43 billion yuan during the same period.