Credit: Visual China

BEIJING, September 20 (TMTPost) -- “Low prices for high quantities" is still the main policy for listed courier service companies in August, according to their monthly reports.

On Monday evening, A-share listed express delivery companies YTO Express (600233.SH), STO Express (002468.SZ), and Yunda Holdings (002120.SZ) released their operating data for August. TMTPost App found that the continuous decline in revenues per order of the three express delivery listed companies has not halted, but both revenue and business volume are steadily increasing. Among them, STO Express's price reduction to gain market share has worked the most, while Yunda Holdings, although still experiencing a year-on-year decline in business volume, has shown a stabilizing and upward trend on a month-on-month basis.

YTO Express had a revenue of 4.067 billion yuan from express delivery products in August, a year-on-year increase of 6.19%; completed delivery orders were 1.741 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.51%; STO Express had a revenue of 3.188 billion yuan from express delivery services in August, a year-on-year increase of 7.63%; completed delivery orders were 1.521 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.04%; Yunda Holdings had a revenue of 3.516 billion yuan from express delivery services in August, a year-on-year decrease of 9.94%; completed delivery orders were 1.623 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.07%.

The industry trend can be seen from the data released by the State Post Bureau. The data shows that in August 2023, the express delivery business volume reached 11.16 billion items, a year-on-year increase of 18.3%, and the express delivery business revenue reached 99.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%. In the first eight months, the cumulative business volume of express delivery (excluding postal group parcel business) reached 81.46 billion items, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%. The cumulative business volume of domestic express delivery reached 8.43 billion items, a year-on-year increase of 0.2%; the cumulative business volume of cross-regional express delivery reached 71.16 billion items, a year-on-year increase of 17.3%; the cumulative business volume of international/Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan express delivery reached 1.87 billion items, a year-on-year increase of 56.3%. The cumulative express delivery business revenue reached 748.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.7%.

However, behind the increase in business volume and revenue, the revenue per order is falling. Among them, YTO Express had a revenue per order of 2.34 yuan for express delivery products, a year-on-year decrease of 7.27%; STO Express had a revenue per order of 2.10 yuan for express delivery services, a year-on-year decrease of 13.22%; Yunda Holdings had a revenue per order of 2.17 yuan for express delivery services, a year-on-year decrease of 17.18%.

TMTPost App found that the revenue per order of three express delivery companies has approached the 2 yuan mark recently, dating back to the first half of 2021. At that time, J&T Express had just entered the Chinese market and started a "price war" in order to quickly expand its business. It was once punished by the Yiwu Postal Administration for "dumping at low prices", which led to the suspension of operations in some distribution centers. Subsequently, the regulator in Zhejiang province issued the "Zhejiang Province Express Delivery Industry Promotion Regulations (Draft)", which stipulates that express delivery operators shall not provide express delivery services at prices lower than the cost, effectively ending the "price war", and the revenue per roder of express delivery companies began to gradually increase.

According to a research report by China Merchants Securities, the growth rate of express delivery volume in early September was about 20%, and the prices of the express delivery industry are likely to experience a seasonal recovery. (This article was first published on the TMTPost App, author: Cao Shengyuan)