The economically booming Shandong Province in East China recorded 74.83 billion US dollars in foreign trade in the first eight months of this year, representing a year-on-year growth of 24.7 percent.

In August alone, Shandong's foreign trade hit 10.55 billion US dollars, up 28.9 percent. This was the first time for the province's foreign trade volume to exceed the 10-billion-US-dollar mark, local customs sources said.

The fast growing local economy drove up demand for raw materials. Between January and August, Shandong's arrivals of raw materials, including crude oil, iron ore, cotton and soy bean, went up 40.9 percent year-on-year to 15.37 billion US dollars, accounting for 42.3 percent of the province's total imports for the eight-month period.