China's foreign trade is expected to maintain momentum this year despite various challenges like high raw material and energy costs, a survey released on Thursday revealed.

The profitability of Chinese exporters in sectors like railway and aviation-related equipment manufacturing, shipbuilding and automobile, has improved during the third quarter of this year, according to a survey by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Major issues that troubled export-oriented companies in the first half, like high costs of logistics, capital and exchange rates, have eased, the survey report stated.

The survey interviewed 2,043 export-oriented companies in late August on issues related to their business outlook and market conditions for the third quarter.

The effects of various policies that were rolled out to stabilize foreign trade in the first half, started to show in the third quarter, said Sun Xiao, spokesman for the Beijing-based CCPIT.

As domestic exporters grow in confidence and develop positive expectations of foreign trade, more and more Chinese companies are getting proficient at both adapting favorable policies under the framework of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement and growing new formats of foreign trade, including cross-border e-commerce, said Sun, who is also the secretary-general of the China Chamber of International Commerce.

Despite facing headwinds from weakening overseas demand, more than 30 percent of Chinese exporters are expected to achieve year-on-year growth in annual trade volume, about 4.09 percentage points higher than that in the second quarter, the survey found.