BEIJING, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- China's 2026 express delivery volume had surpassed 150 billion packages as of Sept. 29, hitting the mark 12 days earlier than in 2025, the State Post Bureau (SPB) said on Wednesday.
The accelerated pace of parcel flows underscores the resilience and dynamism of China's economy, analysts noted.
China's express delivery sector has grown at a double-digit pace for several years, consistently setting new records. In 2025, the country handled 198.95 billion packages, up 13.6 percent year on year.
This momentum has carried into 2026. Given a steady economy shifting toward higher-quality growth, more consumer demand has been unleashed, providing a solid foundation for the expansion of the express delivery market.
China remains the world's second-largest consumer market and it continues to grow. In the first eight months of this year, total retail sales of goods and services, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, rose 2.5 percent year on year, with online retail sales of goods and services reaching nearly 13.48 trillion yuan (about 2 trillion U.S. dollars), up 4.6 percent.
Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, said the consumer market is not only growing in scale but is also undergoing transformation, which is mainly reflected in the gradual shift of consumption structure and consumption patterns.
Smart and green products have emerged as bright spots, with wearables and high energy-efficiency home appliances among the fastest-growing categories. Meanwhile, livestream e-commerce and on-demand retail are playing an increasingly prominent role in driving the market's transformation.
The steady growth in express delivery this year also reflects a deeper shift in how China's logistics networks operate. Courier companies are no longer just delivering packages, but embedding themselves into the production lines of manufacturers to boost goods flows via industrial supply chains.
In Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, courier companies have taken over spare parts warehouse operations for manufacturers including Geely Auto, linking directly into their production systems. Notably, the city has developed 282 such collaborative projects between logistics firms and manufacturers, with related business accounting for almost half of Ningbo's total express delivery volume.
Express delivery embedded deep in production chains is becoming a new engine for industrial upgrading, analysts said.
Moreover, China has expanded delivery networks into remote areas to improve public services and unlock consumer spending in the countryside.
Villagers in Changwangchuan, Fangxian County, central China's Hubei Province, once rode electric bikes more than 10 kilometers just to collect parcels, a trek made necessary by the county's mountainous terrain. A new pilot program is changing this, with authorities this year having moved to extend doorstep delivery services to rural communities in central and western China.
This program had covered nearly 3,000 villages including Changwangchuan by the end of August. For residents there, the change has made daily life markedly easier and given local express delivery volumes a measurable boost.
The express delivery industry serves as both a vital artery for the broader economy and an essential lifeline for everyday life, the SPB said, noting that as pro-consumption policies take hold and new growth drivers emerge, the sector is poised to play an even greater role in bolstering high-quality economic development. ■
