Employees work at a textile factory in Hai’an, a county-level city in Nantong, East China’s Jiangsu province, on April 11. [Photo/IC]

Nantong reported a year-on-year rise in foreign trade of 6.8 percent for the first quarter of this year, 5 percentage points higher than the average for Jiangsu province.

According to statistics released by the local customs department, the city’s import and export volume totaled 60.14 billion yuan ($8.95 billion) in the first three months, realizing a trade surplus of 20 billion yuan.

The value of general trade increased 6.3 percent to 29.14 billion yuan, with the European Union, ASEAN countries, the United States and Japan being the major trade partners.

Import and export trade with the four regions rose 32 percent, 3.1 percent, 6.1 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, to 9.31 billion yuan, 8.37 billion yuan, 7.98 billion yuan and 7.92 billion yuan -- altogether accounting for 55.8 percent of the city’s total.

Electromechanical, textile and petrochemical products were the city’s top three exports, together accounting for 76.5 percent of the city’s total export volume.