Express delivery injects new impetus into Chinese market
The express delivery industry is an important bridge between production and consumption. According to the data released by State Post Bureau of China in July, the gross business volume of Chinese delivery services reached 9.65 billion, increasing 8.0% year on year; the number of total revenue reached 89.82 billion yuan, increasing 8.6% year on year.
The data of year-on-year growth rate of business volume of national express services from March to July, went like this: -3.1%, -11.9%, 0.2%, 5.4%, 8%. They formed a clear V-shaped curve that revealed the great potential of China’s consumer market.
Analysis suggested two reasons are behind the change:
First, with the overall optimistic situation of the epidemic prevention and control, compensatory consumption potential has been fully released and the backlog of orders has been effectively processed. Currently, the average business volume of China's express industry has recovered to over 300 million pieces per day, exceeding the level of the same period last year. Benefiting from the rebounding express industry, the online retail sales of physical goods in China increased by 5.7% year on year from January to July, accounting for more than 1/4 of the total retail sales of consumer goods.
Second, the service capacity of express industry continues to improve. For example, the creation of one-stop service allowed consumers to buy fresh fruit at home online without going to physical stores. In the first half of this year, the number of delivery volume of China's rural area reached 21.9 billion, which provided strong support to the online retail sales of agricultural products by exceeding 290 billion yuan, with a year on year growth of 12.4%.
In addition, the development of express industry has also created new investment opportunities for the market, stimulating the synergistic development of the upstream and downstream of industry chain. In July, China's first professional cargo airport hub in Ezhou city, Hubei province, was officially put into operation. And the cold chain distribution center in Hefei city, Anhui province came into service. Also, the UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle) operation base in Beichuan county, Sichuan province has been under construction. All have offered assistance to the diversification, intellectualization and unmanned process.
More importantly, the express industry is actively promoting the integration of factories and express industry to help the manufacturing industry reduce distribution costs. An analysis showed that such an integration could save at least 1/5 of the circulation costs for manufacturing enterprises. The in-depth integration of express industry and factories would not only enhance their role in the supply chain, but would also effectively improve the competitiveness of other related industries. Consequently, it would provide strong support to the construction of a new development pattern.
Source: People's Daily；Trans-editing by Wang Yunya