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July 29th, 2024 source: Economic Daily
Return to listExpress delivery industry unleashes vitality through service consumption
Editor's note: Since the beginning of this year, the overall operation of China's economy has been stable and steady with progress, new driving forces have accelerated growth, and new progress has been made in high-quality development. Starting today, the Production and Economic Edition will launch a series of reports focusing on new drivers and trends in the fields of express delivery, automobiles, civil aviation, steel, and more.
According to data released by the State Post Bureau, the cumulative volume of express delivery services in China reached 80.16 billion in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%. Among them, the express delivery business volume in June reached 14.57 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 17.7%.
Wang Yuehan, Director of the Industrial Economics Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Post Bureau, stated that in the first half of the year, the industry continued to enhance its capacity building, expand its development space, achieve positive development, and play a positive role in enhancing the vitality of online consumption. In the second half of the year, the fundamentals that support the sustained development of the industry will not change, and there are many favorable factors that promote industry growth. With the sustained effectiveness of policy dividends, continuous efforts in infrastructure construction, and rapid expansion of market space, the industry is expected to gain more market growth.
Rapid expansion of industry scale
According to calculations, the development index of China's express delivery in June was 433.7, an increase of 18.4% year-on-year. Among them, the development scale index of express delivery was 519.3, an increase of 17.5% year-on-year; The development capability index of express delivery is 229, an increase of 1.7% year-on-year.
The rapid expansion of the industry scale in June is a continuation of the positive trend in the express delivery industry this year. Wang Yuehan said that since the beginning of this year, with the recovery and improvement of China's economy, consumer demand has remained active. Under a series of favorable policies, the express delivery industry has achieved good development, providing strong support for the development of the online economy, expanding new consumption, and promoting the flow of product factors.
On the one hand, the demand for delivery is becoming increasingly active. In the first half of the year, the express delivery market was full of vitality and operated well. The volume of express delivery business exceeded 80 billion pieces, with the highest daily volume exceeding 580 million pieces.
Specifically, from January to February, there was a strong demand for New Year's goods, and the daily express delivery volume during the Spring Festival holiday increased by 145.2% compared to the same period in 2023. With strong support from the industry, the online retail sales of physical goods exceeded 1.8 trillion yuan, with a cumulative year-on-year growth of 14.4%. From March to April, the industry delved into the demand for seasonal and specialty product delivery, and the market size steadily expanded, with monthly express delivery business increments exceeding 2.3 billion pieces. From May to June, influenced by multiple factors such as mid year promotions, holiday economy, fresh season, and graduation season, the daily express delivery volume increased to 480 million pieces.
On the other hand, the regional structure continues to optimize. In the first half of the year, the central and western regions increased policy and factor supply, actively put distribution centers into operation in Anhui Bozhou and other places, enhanced warehouse and distribution capabilities, and maintained a high level of market operation. In the first half of the year, the express delivery business volume in the central and western regions increased by about 39% and 36% year-on-year, far exceeding the industry's growth rate. The proportion in the country increased by 1.3 percentage points and 0.9 percentage points respectively, and the coordination of regional development has been enhanced. Among them, the year-on-year growth rate of express delivery business in multiple provinces such as Gansu, Shaanxi, and Guangxi exceeded 40%, effectively driving the steady expansion of regional scale.
In addition, key urban clusters are also accelerating their development. In the first half of the year, key urban clusters such as the Pearl River Delta, Beijing Tianjin Hebei, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and Chengdu Chongqing continued to make efforts, and the proportion of express delivery business in the country increased. Among them, the Yangtze River Midstream Urban Agglomeration and Chengdu Chongqing Urban Agglomeration have leveraged the advantages of air cargo hubs such as Ezhou Huahu International Airport and Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, driving a year-on-year increase of over 40% in business volume in multiple cities.
Continuous enhancement of development momentum
Behind the rapid growth of express delivery business is the continuously improving logistics infrastructure. It is reported that since the implementation of large-scale equipment updates and consumer goods trade in programs, express delivery companies have accelerated the elimination of old sorting and security inspection equipment, increased the proportion of new energy vehicle applications, and promoted the intelligent and low-carbon upgrading of equipment.
In May of this year, Zhongtong Express completed an equipment update at its Bijie branch in Guizhou. In the transportation process, 10 4.2-meter new energy trucks have replaced the original fuel powered 4.2-meter box trucks for express delivery transportation between urban areas and towns; In the transit process, a brand new automated cross belt sorting machine has been put into use, capable of sorting 25000 packages per hour.
The use of new equipment has improved the efficiency of express transit and the frequency of goods departure, while also reducing operating costs, "said Zhang Lianbo, the head of Zhongtong Express Guizhou Bijie branch. Currently, the coverage rate of new energy express vehicles in Bijie urban area has exceeded 50%, and the transportation cost per shipment has been reduced by about 10%. The frequency of goods departure has also increased from two times a day to three times a day.
The efficient and accessible service network has laid an important foundation for the rapid development of the industry. In the first half of the year, the express delivery industry continued to promote infrastructure construction, facilitate network sinking, upgrade and transform distribution centers in Panjin, Liaoning and Wenzhou, Zhejiang, accelerate the construction of smart industrial parks in Xiamen, Fujian and Ruyang, Henan, and continuously improve the warehouse network system; Shanghai, Tianjin and other places are actively exploring subway delivery, and land transportation capacity is steadily improving. The accelerated expansion of the service network has laid the foundation for the industry to better leverage its scale advantages, reduce transportation costs, and improve service efficiency, "said Wang Yuehan.
The innovative development of "express delivery+" services not only creates more increment for the industry, but also brings more benefits to people's lives from the industry's development achievements.
In early June, the small white apricots in Luntai County, Xinjiang, were hanging all over the branches, ushering in a bountiful harvest. Beijing tourist Yao Xiaoyin, who was traveling locally, immediately chose to send the specialty product home after tasting the small white apricot, reducing the burden of the journey. The SF Express service point is located next to the orchard, and by placing an order independently, you can deliver the small white apricots to your doorstep, which is very convenient
Li Shouguo, Deputy General Manager of Xinjiang SF Express Co., Ltd., introduced that SF Express has carefully created a "Little White Apricot Out of Xinjiang" green channel, which strictly controls temperature and humidity through various transportation methods such as air cargo planes, high-speed trains, and refrigerated trucks to ensure that Little White Apricot stays in the best condition during transportation. According to statistics, since the launch of Xiaobaixing this year, SF Express alone has shipped 1 million pieces and over 2500 tons.
In the first half of the year, the express delivery industry actively enriched service content, upgraded service solutions, and better served new types of consumption in order to meet the new needs of people's lives, expand new development space for the industry, actively enrich service content, and better serve new consumption. "Wang Yuehan introduced that the industry is deeply integrated with the cultural and tourism industry, and has launched various services such as remote ordering, door-to-door delivery, and luggage storage, bringing consumers a new experience of easy travel and expanding the export channels of scenic spot specialty products; On the basis of serving traditional e-commerce, we will launch models such as "warehouse distribution+warehouse broadcasting" to enhance the service of new e-commerce; Explore the launch of a "trade in+recycling" service to provide service support for the trade in of durable consumer goods.
Significant increase in air transport capacity
At 2:00 am on June 26th, a Boeing 777 cargo plane operated by China Post Airlines, loaded with mail and cargo, flew straight into the sky from Nanjing Lukou International Airport in Jiangsu Province to Fender International Airport in Luxembourg. This marks the official opening of China Post's first autonomous intercontinental air route.
It is reported that the "Nanjing Luxembourg" intercontinental route can cover 36 countries and regions in Europe by establishing a postal and commercial cargo European transportation trunk line with centralized shipping, one-stop access, and stable economy. The transportation time for major countries and regions can be accelerated to as fast as 4 to 7 days, which can fully meet the delivery needs of manufacturing and cross-border e-commerce customers.
Liu Aili, secretary of the Party Leadership Group and chairman of China Post Group, said that the opening of the "Nanjing Luxembourg" intercontinental route is an important measure taken by China Post to strengthen the market layout of the countries (regions) related to the "the Belt and Road" and RCEP, create a safe, reliable, independent and controllable international logistics supply chain system, and serve to build a new development pattern of domestic and international double circulation, which will effectively enhance China Post's ability to participate in the international logistics cycle and effectively promote the development of China's international trade. At present, China Post Airlines operates more than 20 independent international (regional) routes.
In the first half of the year, the express delivery industry persisted in promoting better connectivity between the domestic and international markets, deepening the promotion of "express delivery going global", opening multiple all cargo air routes such as "Ezhou Lahore" and "Wenzhou Hanoi", operating more than 40 international routes, and steadily enhancing international transportation capacity.
In China, the construction of aviation hubs such as Ezhou, Jiaxing, and Nantong has also accelerated, and the layout of the aviation network has been further optimized, laying the foundation for the industry to better leverage its scale advantages, reduce transportation costs, and improve service efficiency.
On the morning of June 17th at 10 o'clock, the low altitude cargo flight 208B, loaded with 1.3 tons of cherries, departed from Qingdao on time and arrived in Beijing smoothly 3.5 hours later. It is reported that the low altitude all cargo flight operation business jointly developed by Qingdao SF Express, Qingdao Metro Group, and Qingdao Cihang Airport can achieve the fastest delivery of fresh food to Beijing consumers' tables in 6.5 hours, which means that low altitude logistics in Qingdao and Beijing will become normalized and provide more application scenarios for the development of Qingdao's low altitude economy.
Previously, cherries were transported through traditional trunk lines or fixed flights. Now that low altitude cargo routes are available, fresh produce from Qingdao and surrounding cities can be shipped from here, significantly improving logistics efficiency, "said Wang Lei, head of the sales department of Qingdao SF Express. This will further enhance SF Express's transportation capacity and market competitiveness, and gain more advantages in the fierce market competition.
Wang Yuehan stated that with the improvement of industry service quality and supply capacity, delivery services will reach more countries and regions, connect more industries and enterprises, better meet more personalized and customized delivery needs, and the industry is expected to gain more market growth. Overall, it is expected that the industry will achieve its annual development goals well in the second half of the year, making positive contributions to accelerating the realization of the beautiful vision of "maximizing the flow of goods". (Economic Daily reporter Jirei Lei)
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