(Yicai Global) July 21 -- China’s express couriers hiked delivery prices last month, some by more than 20 percent from a year earlier, a bigger increase than for the whole of the first quarter, because of surging costs for oil and gas, labor, and sorting, Securities Times reported today, citing a manager at package tracking platform Kuaidi100.

Yunda Holdings hiked its average charge by 27.2 percent to CNY2.57 (38 US cents) in June from a year ago, the report said, citing the firm’s latest earnings report. Shentong Express and Yuantong Express raised theirs by 18.4 percent and 24.6 percent to CNY2.51 and CNY2.61, respectively, while SF Express lifted its already costlier fees by 3 percent to CNY15.81 (USD2.34).

In the first quarter, Yunda had made upward adjustments of between 8.3 percent and 18.3 percent from a year earlier, SF Express of between 2.2 percent and 5.5 percent, while Zhongtong Express lifted prices by 8.5 percent.

The cost of sending a parcel in China plunged in 2020 after Indonesian delivery giant J&T Express entered the market, sparking a price war. The average price fell 57 percent to CNY10.55 in 2020 from CNY24.60 in 2010. While the number of packages delivered rose 5.9 percent two years ago from 2019, revenue tumbled 6.9 percent.

In April 2021, the post bureau in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, fined J&T and Best, a Chinese supply chain and logistics unit of the Indonesian firm, for “low price-dumping,” partially closing their distribution centers in the city. Since the second half of last year, price competition has cooled, and companies have begun increasing prices.

“Some time ago, local regulatory authorities stopped the price war and introduced relevant rectification measures, and they worked out,” the Kuaidi100 manager told Securities Times. 

Though average prices per delivery have been ‘corrected’ to a degree, they have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, the report said. For example, Shentong’s average was CNY2.51 last month, still much lower than the CNY3.03 it charged in May 2019.

Editor: Futura Costaglione