Two of China's major courier companies, ZTO Express and Yunda Express, have this week raised shipping rates ahead of the country's “online shopping festival” on 11 November, news agency Xinhua reported.
Neither company has disclosed the scale of the price increases. Industry insiders expect other domestic couriers are likely to follow suit, the report noted.
ZTO Express said in a statement that “specifically, the company will increase the last mile delivery fees payable by the parcel pick-up outlets to the delivery outlets, and the network transit fees payable by its network partners to the company for its services. The expected increase in fees varies by parcel weight and geographic location.”
Commenting on the price hike, Meisong Lai, chairman and CEO, said: "This year, the express delivery industry in China continues to see transportation, labour and raw material costs increase. To enhance service quality, protect the interests of our customers, and offset rising costs and increased fees, ZTO network partners are expected to increase their delivery service prices.”
He continued: “I am confident that this increase in price will aid in further improving the stability of our network and enhance service quality while helping to create a healthier and more sustainable market environment."
As for Yunda Express, its brief statement said it was raising prices due to costs and in order to provide a better quality service.
Xinhua quoted the China Express Association which forecast that the industry would handle more than 1 billion packages for the “nationwide shopping spree “between 11 November and 16 November.
In 2016, China accounted for more than 40% of the world's courier sector delivery volumes and 60% of its growth, the report added.
Last month, ZTO announced it was broadening its network with new facilities in Chengdu and Zhejiang after recently expanding a fresh goods delivery service and successfully testing drone deliveries. The company has begun trial operations at its newest sorting hub in Chengdu, in the Sichuan province. The sorting hub is ZTO's largest in Western China in terms of parcel volume.
In July this year, CEP-Research reported that ZTO and the underwriters of its New York stock market listing have been sued by a US pension fund which alleges the company issued exaggerated information about its business performance in order to atttract investors to its $1.4 billion initial public offering (IPO) last year.
