China Focus: China's courier services expand overseas

With the rapid expansion of China's e-commerce sector, courier companies have shifted up a gear as they pursue overseas expansion.

During a forum on courier services held last week in east China's Zhejiang Province, Yu Weijiao, chair of Shanghai-based YT Express, said in the following two to three years, China's courier companies will expand overseas, benefiting both Chinese and international customers.

YT Express ordered 15 Boeing 737 jets from the United States in September to sharpen its competitiveness.

Chen Dejun, chair of Shanghai-based STO Express, said STO had set up 12 transit centers and over 100 branches in the United States during the past two years.

The annual business volume of Chinese courier services is already the best in the world, and the development of cross-border e-commerce companies will further boost the industry's overseas business, he said.

Statistics show that China's courier companies delivered 14 billion packages in 2014, and 15.6 billion have been delivered during the first ten months this year, up by 46 percent annually.

Ma Junsheng, director of the State Post Bureau, said courier firms are injecting vitality into the service sector, and are contributing to economic restructuring.

According to Bai Xiaodong, an official with General Administration of Customs, customs at China's cross-border online business pilot cities have dealt with 55.42 million e-commerce related packages during the first three quarters this year, up by 68 times from last year.

Industrial insiders believe that Chinese courier services are more efficient and customer-oriented than their foreign counterparts.

Shanghai ZTO Express chair Lai Haisong said that it is common for American courier services to take a whole week to deliver a package. In China, it is nearer to three days.

Yu Weijiao said that courier companies are still trying to improve efficiency. Currently STO requires that the domestic express should be delivered within 48 hours. In the future, the company will try to shorten their delivery time of cross-border packages within 72 hours and reduce the cost of international delivery by at least one third, he said.

About 75 percent of China's international courier deliveries are carried out by foreign companies. Chen Dejun said that the proportion may drop to 7.5 percent in the following decade with the rapid expansion of Chinese companies.

Yu Yan, an official in charge of courier supervision under the State Post Bureau, noted that China's courier companies are still small, and more investment was needed to cultivate internationally competitive courier enterprises.

Express companies should also take advantage of information technology such as mobile Internet, the Internet of Things, big data, and cloud computing, in order to broaden their business scope, Yu said. Endi