Reporters learned from the Jinan Customs Beijing Office that in 2013 Binzhou’s import and export volume with ASEAN was US$ 2.1 billion, an increase of 97.1 percent, accounting for 25.4 percent of the total import and export volume.

ASEAN has surpassed the United States to become Binzhou’s biggest trading partner since 2012.

In 2013, Binzhou maintained a good momentum in foreign trade, of which the import and export volume first broke the US$ 8.0 billion mark, reaching 8.29 billion, a yearly rise of 32.1 percent -- and 23.3 percent higher than the provincial average growth rate, ranking 10th among 17 cities.

Among this, export volume was US$ 3.54 billion, an increase of 25.2 percent; import volume was US$ 4.75 billion, an increase of 37.7 percent. The scale, structure and market of foreign trade in Binzhou maintained an optimized growth.