The LNG sector is playing a key role in boosting Rudong's import business. [Photo/WeChat account: rudongfb]

The import-export volume of Rudong county – administered by Nantong city in East China's Jiangsu province – in the first quarter of 2022 totaled 14.93 billion yuan ($2.26 billion), representing a year-on-year growth of 52.9 percent.

That ranked it first among Nantong's administrative divisions, according to the county's commerce bureau.

In Q1, the import volume came close to 10 billion yuan, up 70.1 percent year-on-year, boosted by the booming ports sector.

As the largest liquefied natural gas distribution center in the Yangtze River Delta region, the PetroChina Jiangsu LNG Terminal – located on Yangguang Island in Yangkou Port in Rudong – is able to gasify and store 10 million metric tons of LNG per year, after two expansions.

In the first three months of the year, the terminal received and loaded 1.8 million tons of LNG from Australia, Qatar, Russia and other countries and regions.

Rudong's leading competitive industries contributed to the county's Q1 exports which were valued at 4.99 billion yuan, up 27.4 percent.

Jiangsu Youjia Crop Protection Co Ltd – located in the Coastal Economic Development Zone – produces herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators. Sales of its products surged during the period and it reported exports worth $88 million.

Furthermore, several key enterprises in Rudong achieved exports worth over 100 million yuan in Q1.