Foreign-funded companies in Shanghai registered an average of 8.86 billion US dollars of foreign trade each month during the January-November period of 2004, the local customs said Sunday.

The gross foreign trade of these companies is expected to top 105 billion US dollars for the year, accounting for about 67 percent of the city's total.

Shanghai's total export for 2004 is predicted at 72 billion to 73 billion dollars, 23.5 billion to 24.5 billion US dollars more than the previous year, according to Shanghai Foreign Economic andTrade Commission. About 70 percent of the increased export would be done by foreign-funded companies.

Thirteen of the foreign-funded companies, most of which are engaged in IT-related processing trade, did more than 1 billion dollars worth of foreign trade in the January-November period. Among the exports and imports, electromechanical and high-tech products grew the fastest.

Source: Xinhua