HANGZHOU — East China's Zhejiang province has seen strong imports growth via the freight train service linking Europe in the first seven months of 2021, local customs said.

In the January-July period, the freight service connecting Yiwu and Jinhua in Zhejiang with cities in Central Asia and Europe handled 26.71 billion yuan (about $4.1 billion) worth of goods, up 130.7 percent year-on-year, Hangzhou Customs said.

Imports soared 21.4 times year-on-year to 6.49 billion yuan, in part fueled by the expanding freight train network covering more parts of Central Asia and Europe.

Apart from raw materials and farm produce, the inbound trains are bringing more mechanical products, consumers goods as well as items for cross-border e-commerce.