Manzhouli, a city on the Sino-Russian border in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, exported US$1.68 million of electromechanical products to Russia in January this year, a rise of 17.5 fold over the first month of 2004, the latest statistics show.

Electromechanical products made up 70.63 percent of the total export value via Manzhouli Port, the largest land port along the Sino-Russian border, according to figures from the Manzhouli Customs.

Export commodities to Russia include, among others, automobiles, machinery equipment, concrete mixer, household appliances, valves, intermediate frequency electric stoves.

It is learned that Russia's demand for electromechanical products has increased in both shipments and varieties in recent years. As Russia is now short of small and medium-sized electromechanical products, its market relies heavily on imports.

A lot of Chinese manufacturers have seized this opportunity to explore the Russian market and many of them have set up ventures and factories in the country since last year. They also use the equipment exported from China.

Also as the center of the northeast Asian economic ring for centuries, Manzhouli has been a pivotal hub for cargo transport between Asia and Europe. It handles more than 60 percent of the trade volume between China and Russia.