Shanghai's foreign trade totaled 2.57 trillion yuan (about 400 billion U.S. dollars), up 17.1 percent year on year, in the first eight months of 2021, customs authorities said Thursday.

During the period, the municipality's exports rose by 10.4 percent to about 973.8 billion yuan, while imports went up 21.6 percent to 1.6 trillion yuan.

High-tech and new-technology products including integrated circuits and automatic data processing equipment and its components accounted for nearly one third of the total import value, said the local customs.

Meanwhile, mechanical and electrical products reached an export value of about 662 billion yuan, up 10.6 percent, accounting for 68 percent of the city's total export value during the period.

Notably, Shanghai's automobile imports increased 55 percent to over 50 billion yuan while its diamond imports had more than tripled to exceed 18.66 billion yuan. Enditem