According to statistics from Taiyuan Customs, the total export and import volume of Shanxi province was 38.71 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) in the first half of 2014, a 16 percent decline from last year.

Export volume was 18.93 billion yuan with a decrease of 14.9 percent, while import volume decreased 17 percent to 19.78 billion yuan.

Two cities in the province, Taiyuan and Yuncheng, contributed most of the province’s export and import volume in first half of the year, accounting to 70.6 percent of the total. Still, Taiyuan saw a decline of 19.2 percent in export and import volume from last year, which had totaled 22.55 billion yuan. Yuncheng’s export and import value was 4.79 billion yuan, an increase of 0.1 percent.

The export volume of state-owned enterprises in Shanxi amounted to 7.78 billion yuan with a growth of 38 percent, although their total export-and-import volume shrank 5 percent to 14.2 billion yuan at the same time. Both foreign- and private-owned enterprises witnessed a drop in exports.