Merchants select goods at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu City, east China's Zhejiang Province, Feb. 20, 2021.Photo:Xinhua

Yiwu, a foreign trade hub in East China's Zhejiang Province, saw foreign trade value exceed 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) threshold in the first five months of 2021, equivalent to that recorded by Southwest China's Yunnan Province, according to data provided by the local customs.

Total trade by Yiwu exceeded 127.36 billion yuan in the period, up 25.2 percent year-on-year. Exports hit 120.04 billion yuan, an increase of 23.4 percent, while imports hit 7.32 billion yuan, an increase of 64.7 percent, the Yiwu Customs office told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

These figures mean that Yiwu's foreign trade was equivalent to that of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, where total trade rose 56.2 percent to 121 billion yuan in the first five months of 2021.

Rapid growth was made in major trading markets, according to Yiwu Customs.

Trade with ASEAN increased 23.5 percent year-on-year to 15.6 billion yuan thanks to the newly launched international freight route between Yiwu and Manila, which opened in March -- the second international freight route from the Yiwu airport.

Yiwu's trade with the EU and Belt and Road Initiative economies increased by 38.6 percent and 19.4 percent year-on-year, bolstered by the Yiwu-Madrid railway route, which delivered 12.9 billion yuan worth of cargo from January to May, up 225.1 percent.

Yiwu's trade with the US , Chile and Mexico went up 23.4 percent, 102.0 percent and 160.7 percent to 12.52 billion yuan, 4.17 billion yuan and 4.09 billion yuan.

Mechanical and electronic products and high-tech products have become a major growth point for exports, according to the customs data.

From January to May, Yiwu exported 45.74 billion yuan worth of mechanical and electronic products, up 25.9 percent, with exports of semiconductors and solar panels surging over 300 percent.

Imports were mainly made up of consumer goods, which accounted for more than 80 percent of the total imports in the city. From January to May, imports of consumer goods rose 54.2 percent to 6.08 billion yuan in Yiwu.