Trucks and engineering vehicles wait to be loaded at Yantai Port in east China's Shandong Province, Dec. 10, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's foreign trade hit a record high in total value in 2024 as the world's second-largest economy further consolidated its top position globally in goods trade.

The nation's total goods imports and exports in yuan terms reached 43.85 trillion yuan (about 6.1 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, up 5 percent year on year, according to data released Monday by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Exports grew 7.1 percent year on year to 25.45 trillion yuan last year, while imports expanded 2.3 percent from one year earlier to 18.39 trillion yuan, the data showed.

At a government press conference held in Beijing on Monday, GAC deputy head Wang Lingjun said that China's foreign trade growth in 2024 was relatively fast among major economies in the world.

"China has become a major trading partner of more than 150 countries and regions, and the country's circle of friends in foreign trade is getting larger," Wang said.

The official said that the structure of import and export products had also been continuously optimized and upgraded last year, with high-tech products reporting good growth numbers and a boom in new types of trade such as cross-border e-commerce.

He said the country's foreign trade achievements last year did not come easily, and they were a result of a raft of timely incremental policies rolled out by the central authorities as well as measures aimed at stabilizing foreign trade last year.

He said that customs authorities last year introduced and implemented 16 measures to further optimize the business environment at ports and facilitate the customs clearance of enterprises. Special actions to promote cross-border trade facilitation were also taken in 20 cities to create a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized first-class port business environment.