The volume of Chinese exports in June increased by 5.8% year-on-year to $325.2bn, the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China said.
This is the highest level in four months.
Overseas shipments of rare earth metals soared 60% to 7,742,000 tonnes, the highest volume since 2009.
Imports rose 1.1% to $210.4bn, the first rise since the start of this year.
Analysts on average had forecast a 5 per cent rise in the former figure and a 1.3 per cent rise in the latter, according to Trading Economics.
In the first half of the year, China increased exports by 5.9% to $1.81 trillion. Shipments of agricultural products rose by 1%, textiles by 1.8% and fertilisers by 25.9%.
Exports to Japan rose by 4.8%, to the UK by 8% and to ASEAN states by 13%. At the same time, shipments to the US fell by 10.9%.
China’s imports in January-June decreased by 3.9% to $1.22 trillion. Supplies from the US (-7.7%), the European Union (-4.8%) and Russia (-8.6%) decreased, while imports from ASEAN increased by 2.3%.
China’s foreign trade surplus rose to $114.77bn in June from $98.94bn in the same month of 2024.
The foreign trade surplus totalled $586bn in the first half of the year, up from $435bn in the same period a year earlier.