Shanghai, China's leading industrial center, realized 161.9 billion US dollars in foreign trade in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 24.1 percent.

Of the total, 88.86 billion US dollars, or 54.9 percent, was intrade with the European Union, the United States and Japan.

Among the three major trade partners, the EU took the lion's share, with 32.99 billion US dollars in import and export, up 24.5percent over the figure a year ago.

In terms of exports, steel export of Shanghai increased by 170percent to 1.8 billion US dollars in the first six months. Furniture export came to 1.77 billion US dollars, up 49.5 percent.

Source: Xinhua