Northwest China's Gansu province saw its foreign trade volume hit 33.4 billion yuan ($5.11 billion) in the first 11 months of 2020. In November, the total import and export value of Gansu's foreign trade chalked up 3.14 billion yuan, up 2.2 percent month-on-month, according to Lanzhou Customs on Tuesday.

Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the European Union and ASEAN are the province's top four trading partners. From January to November, Gansu's imports and exports to the European Union (excluding the UK) reached 2.93 billion yuan. The total value of imports and exports to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and ASEAN was 6.63 billion yuan, 3.07 billion yuan and 2.51 billion yuan respectively.

Processing trade imports and exports maintained upward momentum. In the first 11 months, the foreign trade volume of processing trade rose by 2.7 percent year-on-year to 9.26 billion yuan, comprising 27.7 percent of the total foreign trade. Among which, the exports posted 2.62 billion yuan, slip 9 percent year-on-year, while imports added up to 6.64 billion yuan, up 8.2 percent year-on-year.

The import and export value decline in the comprehensive bonded zone in Lanzhou New Area continued to narrow. In the first 11 months, total import and export value of that area dropped by 9.5 percent year-on-year to 1.88 billion yuan, and the loss has narrowed by 8 percentage points. In November, its total imports and exports volume stood at 330 million yuan, surging 69.5 percent year-on-year. Within this figure, its export and import volume reached 97.02 million yuan and 230 million yuan respectively, an increase of 1.9 times year-on-year.

Imports of mechanical and electrical products and new nickel and cobalt materials kept soaring. In the first 11 months, the import of mechanical and electrical products reached 2.92 billion yuan, an increase of 19.3 percent year-on-year. Among them, the import of electronic components reached 1.65 billion yuan, expanding 33.6 percent year-on-year. Imports of new nickel and cobalt materials hit 2.39 billion yuan, surging 67.2 percent year-on-year.