Lithuania Post handled more than seven million parcels from China in the first quarter of this year, including substantial volumes from Alibaba Group, with the bulk of them destined for the rest of the EU or Russia.
The postal operator said it had a 16% rise to more than 14 million international postal items between January and March 2015. More than half of these items (54%) were from China, a further rise on the 47% share achieved in 2014.
In terms of postal import and exports, the top five inbound markets during the first quarter were China, Poland, Germany, USA and Latvia, while Great Britain, Germany, USA, Russia and Latvia were the five main destination markets.
Lithuania Post explained that this growth was largely a result of the cooperation with a Chinese logistics company, which distributes postal items to the countries of the European Union, Russia and Belarus through Lithuania Post.
Last June the postal operator signed an agreement with Beijing-based logistics company CLEVY to deliver Chinese goods to Europe, covering EU member states, Russia, Belarus, and other countries. CLEVY’s key customers include Alibaba Group, its e-commerce platform Tmall and its logistics network Cainiao, according to information on its website.
The two partners have launched ‘Clevy-LP Parcels’ as an efficient small parcel logistics service between China and Europe for cross-border e-retailers. Goods are consolidated at Shenzhen, flown from Hong Kong to Lithuania, and then distributed throughout Europe and Russia. A Beijing warehouse was due to go into operation early this year.
In addition, Lithuania Post also signed a cooperation deal with S.F. Express, the largest private Chinese delivery company, last June for a similar China-Europe cross-border service.
Lithuania Post wants to position itself as ‘the gateway to Europe’ for Chinese import parcels by taking advantage of the country’s geographical location between Western, Northern and Eastern Europe as well as Russia and CIS states. In February this year a new logistics hub was opened in Kaunas to help deal with this volume growth.
Rasa Radzeviciene, director of Lithuania Post’s Office of postal operations, said: “The flow of received postal items from China is steadily increasing quarter on quarter. There are several causes to explain these numbers. Firstly, Lithuanians are more often ordering from online stores in China, in addition to this, Lithuania Post is closely cooperating with foreign partners.”
