The Xiamen port in East China's Fujian province is expected to handle 20 million containers per year by 2035. [Photo/xmnn.cn]

Xiamen's trade with the countries involved in Belt and Road Initiative reached 16.99 billion ($2.53 billion) in May, an all-time high, as per local authorities.

The figure also represents a yearly uptick of 14.8 percent, accounting for 32.2 percent of the total foreign trade of Xiamen recorded over the period, according to Xiamen authorities.

Among them, exports with these countries stood at 9.29 billion yuan, an increase of 19.8 percent while imports grew 9.3 percent to 7.7 billion yuan.

From January to May, Xiamen's trade volume with BRI countries amounted to 75.88 billion yuan, accounting for 31.5 percent of the total in the city.

Its trade with ASEAN member states including Indonesia and Vietnam posted a strong growth over the five-month period.

Official data show that Xiamen's imports and exports with Indonesia soared by 13.5 percent to 9.7 billion while the number for Vietnam and Russia were 7.36 billion and 5.29 billion, representing increases of 23 percent and 26 percent respectively.

Products exported to BRI countries from Xiamen were mainly traditional labor-intensive products as well as mechanical and electrical products.

Exports of labor-intensive products, including textiles, clothing, furniture, luggage, shoes, plastic products and toys, reached 14.74 billion yuan, down 1.5 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the figure for mechanical and electrical products reached 17.41 billion yuan, up 8.8 percent year-on-year.

The two accounted for 75.9 percent of the city's total export value to the BRI countries from from January to May.

The import demand for agricultural products, plastics of primary shape and textile products expanded at a fast pace.

Over the period, Xiamen imported 3.74 billion yuan of agricultural products from BRI countries, 1.1 times of that last year.

Imports of plastic in primary shapes stood at 3.3 billion yuan, up 23.3 percent year-on-year while Imports of textile products reached 2.58 billion yuan, up 52 percent.