China's express delivery industry growing in strength

Sources: State Post Bureau of China, Hong Kong Trade Development Council, China Economic Net

Benefiting from the advances of convenient transportation tools such as aviation and information technology, China’s express delivery market has expanded rapidly in recent years. Rapid development of E-commerce has also laid a solid foundation for the express delivery industry's development. The business volume of large-scale express delivery enterprises in China reached 1.04 billion pieces in the first half of 2010, an increase of 24.5% year on year; and the business income realized, RMB26.49 billion (US$3.95 billion), up 24%.

Currently, EMS and the “big four”, namely DHL, FedEx, UPS and TNT dominate China’s international express delivery market. EMS and SF Express lead China’s medium and high-end express delivery market, while franchised private express companies dominate China’s economy express market. However, for the industry to continue its robust development, a number of industry drawbacks need immediate attention. These include insufficient service capacity, low level of service quality and increasing customer complaints. Rising illegal activities connected to express delivery services and frequent disputes among related enterprises need to be tackled as well.