SHANGHAI — Shanghai's foreign trade volume hit a monthly record high in July, surpassing 400 billion yuan (about $59 billion), reaching 404.22 billion yuan, Shanghai Customs said on Aug 18.

Last month, the megacity's exports and imports increased by 32.9 percent and 16.4 percent, respectively, over the same period of last year.

Exports of automatic data processing equipment and its components, including laptops and mobile phones, surged 52.8 percent year-on-year to 23.13 billion yuan, while exports of labor-intensive products also saw substantial growth, standing at 22.34 billion yuan, up 36.4 percent year-on-year.

During this period, the export of new energy industry products became a highlight. Shanghai exported 5.52 billion yuan worth of electric manned vehicles, 2.75 billion yuan worth of lithium batteries and 1.09 billion yuan worth of solar cells, up 19.5 percent, 560.9 percent and 197.4 percent year-on-year, respectively.

With regard to imports, Shanghai saw a surge of high-end consumer goods in July. Imports of passenger cars, watches, jewelry and diamonds grew by 56.9 percent, 13.8 percent, 36 percent and 14.7 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Meanwhile, throughout the month, Shanghai imported 16.64 billion yuan worth of gold, up 25.7 percent year-on-year.