China sees overseas courier deliveries rise 52%

CHINA’S overseas courier delivery volume in 2023 saw year-on-year growth of 52 percent, official data showed on Monday, demonstrating continuing improvement in the nation’s cross-border e-commerce market.

The ongoing expansion of the courier business can be attributed to the rise of a new e-commerce model, which contributes to stable and positive economic momentum and brings new impetus for the country’s foreign trade, analysts said.

The express delivery volume to overseas markets including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan hit 3.07 billion items, a rise of 52 percent from 2022, according to the State Post Bureau.

The news is also in line with strong customs data released recently. The imports and exports of China’s cross-border e-commerce amounted to 2.38 trillion yuan ($330.7 billion) in 2023, a yearon-year increase of 15.6 percent, data from the China’s General Administration of Customs showed.

Official data also showed that there are more than 200,000 independent cross-border e-commerce stations, covering 220 countries and regions. And the number of warehouses serving overseas e-commerce has risen to more than 2,400, with an area of more than 25 million square meters.

The expansion can be attributed to the strong momentum of China’s manufacturing industry and robust supply chain, said Lu Zhenwang, founder of Shanghai Wanqing Commerce Consulting.

There was also a lot of pent-up demand for shopping in 2023 amid fast recovery of the economy after the pandemic, Lu added.

Chinese experts said that clothes, groceries and toys will be the main driving forces for cross-border e-commerce.

The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2023 stressed the need for new drivers of foreign trade, along with expansion of the intermediate goods trade, service trade and cross-border ecommerce exports.