Ships get ready for their voyages in the foreign trade container terminal of Qingdao port in Shandong province. [Photo by Yu Fangping/For China Daily]

China will gain a bigger share of global exports regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on foreign demand, according to the head of the country's customs administration, a South China Morning Post report said on Wednesday.

The country's exports share is expected to rise further despite an overall shrinking of global trade, the report quoted Ni Yuefeng, minister of the General Administration of Customs.

According to the report, China was the world's first major economy to witness large recovery of production from coronavirus shock, adding that its GDP growth rate in the second quarter reached 3.2 percent, following the historic 6.8 percent contraction in the first three months of 2020.

The SCMP also noted that this improvement is in sharp contrast to the rest of the world, as the WTO predicted in June that the value of global trade would shrink by between 13 percent and 32 percent this year.

China's share of total exports to its 13 largest trading partners rebounded to 18 percent in April, an increase of 5 percentage points on a yearly basis and the highest share since 2008, the SCMP said, citing a report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The customs chief attributed this performance to government's quick response in controlling the coronavirus and actions to support the export manufacturing industry, including quickening export tax rebates and encouraging domestic sales of goods originally produced for the overseas market, the report said.

China also boosted exports in Southeast Asian countries, as well as countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, to diversify its export markets, the report said.