North China's Shanxi Province, the country's leading coal producer, registered foreign trade of 4.26 billion US dollars in the first three quarters this year, a year-on-year rise of 6.59 percent, according to the latest customs figures.

Taiyuan customs reported that Shanxi ranked second in China in terms of the increase rate of its imports in the first three quarters. The province's imports totaled 1.54 billion US dollars in the first nine months, up 63.44 percent over the same period last year.

But its exports decreased by 10.54 percent year-on-year to hit 2.72 million US dollars in the first nine months.

An analyst with Taiyuan Customs ascribed the marked decrease of exports to the lowered price of coke, which plunged to 204.45 US dollars per ton.

According to the statistics from customs, last year Shanxi's coke production represented 42 percent of the national total, and its coke exports accounted for 80 percent of China's coke exports. About 48 percent of the coke traded in the international market was exported from Shanxi.

But in the January-August period this year, the ratio of coke exports in the province's total decreased to 35.53 percent from 47.96 percent, registering a year-on-year loss of 470 million US dollars.

Customs figures also show that high-tech exports reached 54.69 million US dollars, up by 2068 percent year-on-year, the highest growth in the country.

Source: Xinhua