Shanxi's foreign trade in January hit 9.71 billion yuan ($1.41 billion), an increase of 22.8 percent year-on-year, according to the latest figures released by Taiyuan customs on Feb 20.

Exports rose to 5.98 billion yuan, up 26.8 percent and imports totaled 3.72 billion yuan, up 16.9 percent.

The import-export volume of State-owned companies during this period increased 40.5 percent year-on-year to 2.21 billion yuan, accounting for 22.7 percent of Shanxi's foreign trade, and the import-export volume of private companies decreased 16.8 percent to 1.47 billion yuan, making up 15.1 percent of the provincial foreign trade volume.

Foreign-funded companies made the greatest contribution at 6.02 billion yuan, making up more than 60 percent of the total volume.

The processing trade also witnessed rapid growth of nearly 40 percent in January, accounting for around 70 percent of the province's foreign trade volume.

More than half the cities in Shanxi have achieved double-digit (percent) growth in imports and exports since August 2016, such as Taiyuan (38.5 percent) and Jinzhong (44.7 percent).

The steady growth is partially due to the reform in operations and management of local customs as the approval procedures for customs entry and exchanges have been simplified, facilitating product promotion in foreign trade, according to a staff member of Taiyuan customs.

In 2016, Shanxi ranked first nationally in terms of import-export growth with the figure reaching 109.9 billion yuan, year-on-year growth of 20.5 percent.