The foreign trade of East China's Shanghai registered steady growth in the first seven months of the year, with total imports and exports reaching 2.46 trillion yuan (about $345 billion), marking a 0.7 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

Of that, exports amounted to 1.01 trillion yuan, up 2.2 percent, while imports dipped slightly by 0.4 percent to 1.45 trillion yuan.

During the period, general trade accounted for 59.6 percent of Shanghai's total trade, totaling 1.47 trillion yuan, remaining stable compared with last year. Meanwhile, processing trade fell by 2.9 percent, while bonded logistics trade rose by 3.4 percent.

In terms of business enterprise contributions, foreign-invested companies made up 57.4 percent of the total trade, while private and State-owned enterprises accounted for 31.8 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively.

Although foreign-invested enterprises experienced a 2.5 percent decline, private and State-owned enterprises saw growth of 3.8 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.

Shanghai's trade with ASEAN countries grew by 5 percent, reaching 324.42 billion yuan. Most notably, exports of ships and unwrought copper products surged by 108.3 percent and 182.1 percent, respectively.

In addition, imports of metal ores, including iron ore, also experienced significant double-digit growth.