Recently, a B747-400 all-cargo aircraft of SF Airlines flew from Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates with 104 tons of cargo, marking the opening of the “Shenzhen - Abu Dhabi” international cargo route. This is the first Middle East route opened by SF Airlines in Shenzhen. The transported goods include a large number of express and e-commerce goods.

This year, “the first city of cross-border e-commerce,” Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce development has been rapid, and has become an important impetus for the development of foreign trade and consumption upgrading. In the first quarter, Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce import and export growth of more than 95%, strongly driven by apparel, furniture, electronics and other labor-intensive products exports.

Driven by this, the first half of this year, Shenzhen, international / Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan express delivery business volume also realized a year-on-year increase. According to the data released by the State Post Bureau, in the first half of this year, Shenzhen international / Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan express business volume reached 717,726,600 pieces, a strong increase of 49.40% year-on-year, accounting for more than 40% of the proportion of the national international / Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan express business volume.

According to the data disclosed by Shenzhen Postal Administration in June, up to now, Shenzhen cross-border shipping access to 224 countries and regions overseas, air, land and sea routes more than 1,500, enterprises overseas warehouse area of 2.2 million square meters.

Not only Shenzhen, the booming development of cross-border e-commerce has also brought more express “traffic” to Yiwu. Yiwu Postal Administration recently released data to the public that in the first half of this year, Yiwu express business volume reached 6.007 billion pieces, up 16.7%, the cumulative business income of 14.24 billion yuan. Among them, the international and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan express business volume of 25.354 million pieces, an increase of 17.7%.

According to the relevant person in charge of Yiwu City Market Development Committee, in recent years, with the increasing improvement of express logistics, especially cross-border logistics infrastructure, the cross-border parcels from Yiwu sent out more and more varieties of commodities, sporting goods, beads and accessories, clothing, daily necessities, pet supplies and so on have become even more popular commodities this year. In the first half of this year, the United States, Japan, Europe and some countries in Southeast Asia to become a cross-border e-commerce parcel volume growth faster region.

Shenzhen and Yiwu's example, it is in the context of cross-border e-commerce boom, China's international express delivery business volume shows a rapid growth trend of a microcosm.

In the third quarter of 2024 held by the State Post Bureau on the regular press conference, the State Post Bureau Development Research Center released the “June 2024 China Express Development Index Report” shows that in the first half of the year, China's postal industry, the volume of express delivery business completed a total of 80.16 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%. Among them, the cumulative volume of international/Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan express business completed 1.65 billion pieces, up 21.0% year-on-year.

Wang Yuehan, director of the Industrial Economy Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Post Bureau, said that in the first half of the year, the express delivery industry insisted on promoting better connectivity between the domestic market and the international market, promoting “express delivery to the sea” in depth, and strengthening the construction of the international delivery logistics system, and the international/Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan business has been growing steadily.

First, solidly promote the construction of international hubs. In the first half of the year, the express delivery industry focuses on strengthening cross-border infrastructure construction, continue to optimize the international network layout, enhance the international hub level. Five global international postal express hub cluster construction in an orderly manner, many places to enable, upgrade cross-border warehouse, the number of overseas warehouses, the area steadily increased, the international hub system has begun to bear fruit.

Second, actively build three-dimensional sea access. In the first half of the year, express delivery enterprises strengthened the construction of all-cargo aircraft fleet, opened “Ezhou - Lahore” “Wenzhou - Hanoi” and other all-cargo routes, running more than 40 international routes. Promote the opening of cross-border special trains between China and Russia for China-Europe express. The company has opened special land transportation lines for Southeast Asia and operated the U.S.-West maritime routes. A variety of cross-border sea mode continues to promote the steady enhancement of international transportation capacity.

Third, efforts to enhance cross-border service capacity. In the first half of the year, the express industry continued to expand overseas markets, focusing on factory logistics, cross-border direct mail, large logistics, equipment transportation and other areas, to enhance the “door-to-door” one-stop service capacity. We expanded new scenarios for international exhibitions and provided comprehensive services such as transportation, customs clearance and warehousing for enterprises participating in the International Mechanical and Electrical Exhibition. Comprehensively utilizing the service modes of “domestic direct dispatch”, “self-managed warehouse + landed distribution”, “domestic procurement + foreign distribution” to meet diversified cross-border demands and enhance the ability of coordinated overseas transportation. The accelerated development of cross-border services has further strengthened the economic and trade exchanges between China and relevant countries, and played a positive role in accelerating the cultivation of new dynamics of foreign trade.

At the 2024 China Express Industry Quality Development Conference held in Langfang in June, the first “Langfang Index and China Express Industry International Development Index” was officially released. To measure the internationalization of China's express industry development process and play an active role in supporting the development of cross-border e-commerce and international trade to provide a quantifiable reference basis.

The index shows that in 2023, the international development index of China's express industry is 70.5, an increase of 10.3% year-on-year, showing that the level of international development of China's express industry is rapidly improving, and the process of going to sea has accelerated significantly.

In this regard, Han Ruilin, vice president and secretary-general of the China Express Association, said that China's express industry has stepped into the era of annual business volume of one hundred billion pieces, business income of trillion yuan scale, business volume for ten consecutive years ranked first in the world, and is shifting from rapid growth to high-quality development stage. Especially with the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce and China's manufacturing industry to speed up the pace of international development, China's express industry to speed up the pace of international development, in the service of the “Belt and Road” construction, unimpeded domestic and international cycle, and promote the recovery of the global economy to play an increasingly important role.