A bird's-eye view of the Tianjin Port on Aug 14, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua]

Tianjin Port saw its foreign trade increase by 23.8 percent year on year to more than 73.2 billion yuan (nearly $10.5 billion) in June, local authorities said.

Among the total, the import value was 43.95 billion yuan, up by 26.3 percent year on year, while the exports reached 29.27 billion yuan, up by 20.3 percent over the same period last year, said the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

In the first half of this year (H1), foreign trade, affected by COVID-19, went down by 3.4 percent year on year to about 345.6 billion yuan in the city, it said.

The port city’s foreign trade performance in H1 was result of a slew of supportive measures taken by the city such as taxes and fees reduction to cushion the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak, said Zhao Yixuan, an official with the municipal commerce bureau.

In addition, the port city witnessed over 15 million import and export orders of cross-border e-commerce in H1, according to local authorities.

Among the total, the export orders were 757,600 in H1, with a total sales volume of nearly 21.37 million yuan, said the Tianjin Commission of Commerce.

The city received more than 14.26 million declared import orders in H1, up by 16.19 percent year on year, with the value of the goods reaching 2.34 billion yuan, up by 9.18 percent over the same period last year.

Local authorities said Tianjin will further implement more facilitation measures, and create diversified customs clearance models to develop its cross-border e-commerce. 

The first half of the year also witnessed an increase in the parallel-import auto business in the port city, with a total of 38,400 parallel imports, accounting for over 60 percent of the country's total. In June alone, the number of parallel imports hit over 18,500 vehicles, according to the Tianjin Circulation Association of Parallel Import Cars.

Independent auto dealers in China make use of the parallel-import system to sell vehicles to Chinese customers at prices lower than those offered by authorized dealers.

Parallel-import vehicle sales are gaining momentum in China. Retail sales reached 55,200 units in the first half of this year, with over 12,000 units sold in June.