(Yicai) March 13 -- Many small and medium foreign trade companies in China had a very positive start of the year thanks to the low base a year earlier and the continued market recovery.

“Our orders doubled in the first two months of the year from a year earlier, mainly because of the low base last year, increased number of clients, and stronger brand recognition,” Liu Youling, head of environment-friendly material solution provider Jiajing Environmental Protection Technology, told Yicai. The company’s orders declined 10 percent in the first two months of last year from a year earlier, Liu noted.

Lin Hao, a foreign trader of auto parts in Shanghai, told Yicai that the orders his firm delivered this year have already realized the target for the first quarter and that its production for overseas orders has been fully scheduled until May. In comparison, the firm only reached less than 80 percent of its goal for last year.

“The situation is better this year than last year, based on inquiries from clients,” Lin noted, adding that the good start of the year makes him confident about achieving a 50 percent increase in foreign trade sales this year.

China’s foreign trade soared 8.7 percent to a record high of CNY6.61 trillion (USD920 billion) in January and February from the same period last year, according to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs.

Micro, small, and medium private companies remain the main driving force of China’s foreign trade growth this year. Private firms’ imports and exports totaled CNY3.61 trillion in the two months ended Feb. 29, up nearly 18 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 55 percent of the country’s total, an increase of 4.2 percentage points from the same period last year, the data also showed.

Favorable factors for foreign trade are accumulating, Yu Jianhua, director of the GAC, said about the foreign trade trend of this year. China’s imports and exports will keep growing in the first half of this year, but the situation remains complex, he noted.

“We are prudent and optimistic about the foreign trade this year,” Zhang Kuo, president of Chinese business-to-business cross-border e-commerce platform Alibaba.Com, told Yicai in a recent interview.

Editor: Futura Costaglione