Officers from Nantong Customs check the foreign trade cargos. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province saw its foreign trade exceed 136 billion yuan ($20.26 billion) in the first five months of 2022, an increase of 12.6 percent year-on-year, according to the city's customs authorities.

The increase is 4.3 percentage points and 4.1 percentage points higher than the national and provincial averages respectively.

Of the total, exports rose 11.5 percent year-on-year to 88.93 billion yuan, and imports rose 14.8 percent to 47.11 billion yuan.

In May alone, the city's foreign trade increased 16.9 percent year-on-year to 30.68 billion yuan. This included 20.3 billion yuan in exports and 10.38 billion yuan in imports.

From January to May, Nantong's exports in chemical, electromechanical, and labor-intensive products expanded 50.9 percent, 11.4 percent and 5 percent respectively. Liquefied natural gas, grain, and glycol were the city's top three imports.