Read the number with its boundary
China's State Post Bureau reports 198.95 billion express items in 2025, including 4.22 billion in its international, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan category. Most activity therefore belongs to the domestic system. The international category does not identify exports alone or measure China's share of worldwide parcel delivery. Analysis: the scale warrants attention, but a carrier considering overseas capacity must first identify which orders can reach its own network and under which service model.
Separate sector totals from express activity
The State Post Bureau release of 18 September 2026 reports 145.46 billion postal-sector delivery items for January–August, including 134.06 billion express items. The original figures are 1454.6 and 1340.6 亿件. These are different indicators: the broader sector total should not be labelled express volume. Keep the reporting period and source beside each figure; this eight-month release is not a full-year result.
Keep periods and original units visible
The same table reports 16.60 billion express items for August alone, shown as 166.0 亿件. Read the cumulative and single-month columns separately. In Chinese statistical tables, 亿 means 100 million and 万 means 10,000; retain the original unit alongside any conversion. Our reading recommendation is to compare matching periods and definitions, identify the release date, and avoid mechanically annualising eight months of activity. A conversion changes presentation, not the underlying observation.
Keep comparisons on the same basis
An express item, a retail order and a final delivery are different units. Consolidation can combine orders, while separate transport legs can produce records for the same journey. Pitney Bowes' index covering 2024 is explicitly a U.S. study with a shipment weight boundary; it cannot supply a worldwide denominator for China's 2025 total. Align year, geography, product scope and counting method before comparing markets. Record gaps rather than converting incompatible totals into an apparent global share.
Translate origin scale into destination demand
Analysis: a large origin market can support frequent collection, concentrated sorting and procurement experience. Those advantages reach an overseas carrier only through actual trade lanes, merchant contracts and handover arrangements. Build forecasts by destination postcode, parcel size, service tier and dispatch day. Distinguish parcels flown individually from orders fulfilled from destination inventory. The latter may create local delivery demand without generating an international express item at the moment the customer orders.
Test economics before copying a network
High throughput can spread fixed costs, but a dense Chinese operating model does not establish the unit cost of a foreign route. Labour, address quality, delivery density and customer requirements must be measured locally. Compare the full journey: injection handling, sortation, linehaul, failed delivery and claims. Model base demand, promotion peaks and a lower-volume case. Separate expected contribution from volume incentives so a contract remains understandable when forecast growth does not arrive.
Make capacity conditional on evidence
For carriers, begin with a bounded lane pilot and agreed data quality, dispatch windows and exception ownership. For merchants, compare direct shipping with destination fulfilment using the same service promise and inventory assumptions. For supply-chain teams, reserve flexible capacity before committing to a dedicated facility. Define the volume, utilisation and reliability thresholds that would justify expansion. Verify concentration risk: several merchant accounts may still depend on one platform's promotions or allocation decisions.
Maintain a useful decision dashboard
Monitor manifested demand, accepted parcels, destination mix, delivery performance and contribution after exceptions. Add forecast error and the proportion of demand controlled by each commercial partner. China's aggregate statistics provide market context; these operating measures determine whether a specific overseas investment works. Revisit assumptions when inventory placement, platform rules or handover patterns change. Treat each revision as a network decision with an accountable owner, rather than a reaction to another record national volume.
The practical takeaway
Takeaway: Use China's parcel scale as context, then approve overseas capacity against comparable definitions, destination demand and observed unit economics.
Sources & further reading
Industry knowledge and interpretation; carrier terms and local requirements vary.
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