The Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone Development Co. Ltd., the largest free trade zone operator in China, posted a 13.5-percent drop in first half revenue due to dwindling foreign trade activities, said Thursday's China Daily.

The Pudong-based state-owned company, which operates and sells industrial buildings inside the exporting zone, said its revenue from foreign trade and the logistics sector in the first six months was 2.21 billion yuan (315.7 million U.S. dollars), down 26 percent from the same period of last year.

The group's overall operating revenue was 3.36 billion yuan for the first half, down 13.5 percent year-on-year, according to its interim report filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Despite the lower business turnover, Waigaoqiao's first-half profit edged up marginally by 2.9 percent, due to land transfer income from the Sunland Project, a residential area it developed within the Waigaoqiao zone.

Apartment sales at the Sunland project touched 493 million yuanin the first half, a 304-percent rise over the same period last year.

Waigaoqiao said lower foreign exchange losses helped reduce finance costs by 21.3 percent.

Shares of Waigaoqiao ended down by 8.44 percent to close at 14.22 yuan Wednesday.

From January to July, China's foreign trade fell 22.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.15 trillion U.S. dollars, including a 22-percent fall in exports to 627.1 billion U.S. dollars, according to customs data.