Foreign trade by North China's Shanxi province came in at 55.28 billion yuan ($7.89 billion) in the first half of this year, representing a year-on-year decrease of 9.5 percent, according to Taiyuan Customs. 

But foreign trade value in the final month of June hit a new high this year – a dramatic increase of 37.8 percent from that in May – pointing to a rebound in exports and imports.

Elsewhere, other indicators were promising. In the six months, the value of imports and exports traded by private enterprises in Shanxi hit 14.06 billion yuan, up 25.4 percent year on year and accounting for 25.4 percent of the province's total foreign trade value.

That was an increase of 7.1 percentage points over the same period last year, officials said. 

They said imports and exports to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative were 12.59 billion yuan in H1, down 6.7 percent year on year.

Around 700 local companies traded with those countries, mainly importing mobile phone components and accessories and mineral sand -- as well as exporting mobile phones, steel, solar power cells and railway and tram wheels.

Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Shanxi's exports of epidemic prevention and control supplies increased rapidly in the first half of the year.

Epidemic prevention materials worth 190 million yuan and pharmaceuticals worth 920 million yuan were exported, increasing 110 percent and 10.1 percent year on year, respectively. 

The province also exported rail transit equipment worth 550 million yuan and 420 million yuan worth of agricultural products, up 12.7 percent and 20.4 percent respectively. 

In addition, the province's commodity imports gained ground. During period, 460 million integrated circuits and 7.86 million metric tons of metal ore were imported, up 2.6 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.