The Jeminay Port in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region reported 1.356 million U.S. dollars of foreign trade in January, twice as much as the same period of last year.

The figure breaks down into 285,500 U.S. dollars of exports and 1.07 million U.S. dollars of imports, said the local government of Altay Prefecture, where the port is located.

Imports via the port mainly included waste steel and iron, red and yellow copper, aluminium, zinc and lead, while rice, tomato ketchup, chili sauce and cement were among the major export products.

Experts say foreign trade in the area will further mount after the launch of the Jeminay Border Trade Zone as Xinjiang's second border trade market to Kazakhstan on March 1.

The 105,000-square-meter zone, second only to the Horgos Port, is designed to accommodate 10,000 merchants and handle 3,000 tons of cargo. Its annual transaction is expected to top 100 million yuan (12.5 million U.S. dollars).

The trade zone is 624 km from Xinjiang's regional capital Urumqi and 1,100 km from Kazakhstan's capital Astana.

Xinjiang has opened up 16 land ports to foreign tourists and business people.

Source: Xinhua