South China's Guangdong Province saw its foreign trade rise 8.2 percent year on year to 2.03 trillion yuan (around 304 billion U.S. dollars) in the third quarter of this year, customs data said Friday.

It rebounded from decreases of 11.7 percent in Q1 and 3 percent in Q2, according to Guangdong customs.

In the first three quarters, Guangdong's foreign trade totaled 5.08 trillion yuan, down 1.6 percent year on year.

Private enterprises played a key role in the province's recovering foreign-trade performance. From January to September, the trade volume of private enterprises grew 7.2 percent to 2.81 trillion yuan, accounting for 55.4 percent of Guangdong's total.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is Guangdong's largest trade partner in the first three quarters, with the trade volume up 8.8 percent year on year to account for 15.2 percent of Guangdong's total.