China reported a 33 percent rise in exports in August from a year earlier sent its monthly trade surplus to a record for any month, The Wall Street Journal reported. Xinhua reported the August trade surplus was 18.8 billion US dollars which pushed the total surplus accumulated so far in 2006 to 95.65 billion US dollars. Exports have remained an important driver of China's economy, which grew at 10.9 percent in the first half. The paper quoted a Lehman Brothers Inc. analysis of Chinese Ministry of Commerce numbers published yesterday suggests the yuan's value might be becoming less important for Chinese exporters. Of the 56 foreign-funded companies that were among the top 100 exporters from China last year, fewer are in ultra-price-sensitive industries like textiles. A growing number are producers of higher value-added goods, like electronics. More of these companies also are importers of components that would be less expensive with a stronger yuan. "This reaffirms our view that China's trade surplus is unlikely to be dented much by appreciation" of the yuan, the firm's analysts said in their report.