Robust transportation, logistics data reflect China's economic vitality

This photo taken on Oct. 16, 2023 shows a logistics park at Lanzhou New Area in northwest China's Gansu Province. (Xinhua/Fan Peishen)

BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- China's transportation and logistics sectors have registered robust performances driven by pro-growth policies and consumption potential gradually unleashed since the beginning of 2023, pointing to both the stable recovery trend of domestic demand and growing economic vitality.

The country's inter-regional passenger traffic, fueled by strong demand for business trips, family visits and tourism, surged 31 percent year on year to 45.66 billion from January to September, data from the Ministry of Transport showed.

Among all types of transport, civil aviation trips showed the biggest growth, rocketing 126.7 percent year on year, followed by 120.9 percent waterway trip growth and a 112.4 percent rise in railway trips, while road trips increased by 26.8 percent.

In addition, data concerning China's courier sector and international goods transport also indicated rapid growth. China's courier sector saw its delivery volume exceed the benchmark of 100 billion parcels, 39 days earlier than in 2022, according to the State Post Bureau.

Since March 2023, single-month parcel volume has exceeded 10 billion, and the monthly business income of the sector has topped 90 billion yuan (about 12.54 billion U.S. dollars), according to the bureau.

In the first three quarters, commercial cargo transport volume went up 7.1 percent year on year to 40.31 billion tonnes, according to the transport ministry. Fixed-asset investment in transport reached 2.88 trillion yuan during this period, marking 5.6 percent year-on-year growth.

During the same period, cargo throughput at China's ports increased by 8.5 percent to 12.54 billion tonnes, with container throughput growing by 5.2 percent to reach 230 million twenty-foot equivalent units, the data revealed.

Commenting on transportation and logistics data, Sun Wenjian, spokesperson with the transport ministry, said that continued economic recovery and growing consumption demand in the domestic market were among the main reasons for these sectors' solid performances.

Sun added that robust import demand for major commodities has also lent steam to the stable development of China's logistics sector since the start of this year. The country's total imports of iron ore, coal and grain went up 18.3 percent year on year to 1.34 billion tonnes during the period, the ministry's data showed.

Looking forward, China's demand for freight logistics is expected to peak as the country is embracing the "Double 11" consumption season, said Zhou Zhicheng, a researcher with the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, adding that demand for manufacturing and export amid the upcoming Christmas season will further drive the rapid growth of cargo throughput at ports.

Another important pillar of the development of transportation and logistics, especially in the export sector, is industrial upgrading, Zhou noted, explaining that the proportion of high-end manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, and pharmaceutical and chemical products in China's total exports has picked up.

"With the gradual recovery of exports, enterprises have positive expectations for the fourth quarter," he said, adding that social logistics operations are expected to remain in the expansion zone.