The Shanghai port reports its foreign trade surplus rose 41 percent year on year in the first seven months of the year to around 56 billion U.S. dollars, said local customs.

The numbers represent a significant drop in the growth of the trade surplus. With the exports of textiles up by only 9.5 percent and the imports of electronics and machinery up 20.5 percent, the growth rate in the trade surplus dipped 82.3 percentage points.

As the European Union and the United States have re-imposed quotas on Chinese textile products, the growth of exported clothes and apparel through Shanghai was 14.7 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

Total exports through Shanghai rose 25.2 percent year-on-year to 145 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months.

Electronic and machine products, which account for two thirds of the total imports though Shanghai port, recorded a robust growth in the first seven months and boosted the total imports.

This category of products rose by 20.5 percent in the first seven months, 13.7 percentage points higher compared with a year ago. Imports of integrate circuit and micro-electronics products increased 23.7 percent and liquid-crystal display (LCD) boards were up 30.8 percent.

Total imports through the port rose 17 percent compared to a year earlier to 88.9 billion U.S. dollars, seven percentage points higher than the same period last year.