TIANJIN, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Foreign trade via the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin rose 7.8 percent year-on-year in the first four months of the year on stronger imports.

The trade value reached 441.6 billion yuan (63.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-April period, said the Tianjin Customs.

Exports edged up 2.1 percent year-on-year to 207.1 billion yuan while imports grew 13.4 percent to 234.5 billion yuan, customs authorities said.

Foreign trade in April alone grew at a stronger annual pace of 14.2 percent to 118.2 billion yuan.

The top three export products were steel, agricultural and textile products while the top three imports products are automobiles, agricultural products and crude oil.

Natural gas and crude oil drove up import growth by 5.6 percentage points. In the four months, the imports of natural gas totaled 3.1 million tonnes, up 110 percent year-on-year, while its import value grew 170 percent to 12.5 billion yuan.