China's express delivery sector continued to post significant growth in the first 11 months of 2025, handling over 180 billion parcels to record a nearly 15 percent year-on-year increase, official data showed on Tuesday.
According to the State Post Bureau, the country's China's broader postal industry, which includes express delivery services, saw a total of 196.75 billion parcels from January through November, marking a 12.9 percent rise from the same period in 2024.
The postal industry's total business revenue exceeded 1.63 trillion yuan (over 230 billion U.S. dollars), up 6.7 percent year on year, the data showed.
Specifically, the overall express delivery revenue reached nearly 1.36 trillion yuan, a 7.1 percent increase compared to the previous year.
Same-city express deliveries amounted to 14.47 billion parcels, a 2.2 percent year-on-year increase, while cross-region deliveries surged by 16.3 percent to 162.44 billion parcels.
The total volume of express deliveries to overseas countries and China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions reached 3.83 billion parcels, a year-on-year increase of 11.3 percent.
In November alone, China's postal industry handled 19.49 billion parcels, up 3.8 percent year on year. Among these, more than 18 billion parcels were handled in express delivery sector, up 5 percent year on year.
In November, the postal industry's business revenue, excluding the direct business revenue of Postal Savings Bank, reached 162.68 billion yuan (over 23 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year decrease of 2.0 percent.
Specifically, express delivery revenue reached 137.65 billion yuan (around 19.5 billion U.S. dollars), showing a year-on-year decrease of 3.7 percent.
China's express delivery sector posts double-digit growth in first 11 months
Banks in south China's Hainan Province has launched innovative multi-functional free trade accounts to enable free and efficient transfer of funds between domestic and overseas accounts, facilitating cross-border capital flow at the Hainan Free Trade Port.
By the end of November this year, 11 banks in Hainan had launched the service, processing transactions equivalent to 295 billion yuan (42 billion U.S. dollars) with entities in 80 countries and regions.
At Hainan's Yangpu Port, one paper manufacturer demands high efficiency in cross-border settlements for its global operations.
Zhao Wenlong, the company's chief financial officer, said the newly opened multi-functional free trade account provides one-stop services for cross-border fund settlements, foreign exchange, investment, and financing. The streamlined process -- free of additional reviews and supplementary documentation -- has significantly boosted capital flow efficiency.
"Its advantages are apparent as it only requires instructions for transactions. For businesses, it's just like direct domestic transfers, eliminating the need for prior approvals and other procedures. This significantly improves the efficiency of corporate fund utilization," said Zhao.
Beyond settlement convenience, the offshore exchange rate advantage of the account has delivered tangible financial benefits to enterprises. Zhao's company saved a significant amount in financial costs on a recent 23 million U.S. dollars foreign exchange settlement transaction thanks to this feature.
"We can choose between two accounts to conduct foreign exchange purchases and settlements with the more favorable exchange rate," said Zhao. The application scenarios for functional free trade accounts are rapidly expanding from basic settlement to complex financial services, becoming a powerful support for enterprises to expand into international markets.
"Starting with the initial simple function of cross-border fund transfers, we have introduced numerous business innovations this year, such as overseas USD financing combined with onshore RMB currency swaps. With the continuous utilization of our services and the integration of our business with the FTP policies, we will roll out more innovative measures to enable enterprises to reap greater benefits," said Li Peng, deputy head of the Hainan Branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Bank innovations facilitate cross-border capital flow at Hainan FTP
