By Joanne Chiu
HONG KONG--S.F. Express Co. aims to more than double its
freighter jet fleet to 100 by 2018, as one of China's largest
privately owned express delivery companies seeks to tap the
country's growing demand for e-commerce and logistics services, a
senior executive said.
The company, with about one fifth of Chinese market share,
currently operates 36 owned and leased Boeing freighters to deliver
air cargo within the country. It also provides express delivery
services to overseas countries including the U.S., Singapore, South
Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand through rented belly space of
commercial aircraft operated by other airlines.
Li Dongqi, vice president of Shenzhen-based S.F. Express, said
Wednesday this week that the company has been expanding into the
fast-growing business-to-consumer online market in the past two
years, through partnerships with major online retailers such as
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as well as its own online shopping
platform, sfbest.com.
"Business-to-consumer online sales have experienced an
exponential growth rate of more than 50% over the past five years
and I believe this growth trend would continue for a certain period
of time," said Mr. Li.
He said S.F. Express--which is competing with China Postal
Express & Logistics Co., a unit of state-owned China Post
Group, and other privately owned operators such as ZTO Express and
STO Express--aims to handle more than two million metric tons of
cargo in 2018, up from a target of around one million tons this
year, on the back of strong demand.
Mainland China's booming online-shopping market has fueled the
growth of courier and logistics companies over the past few years,
with local express-delivery companies such as S.F. Express
expanding aggressively to meet the robust demand for online
sales.
China's express-delivery industry handled 10.68 billion items in
the first 10 months of the year, up 52% from a year earlier, with
revenue jumping 42% to 159.2 billion yuan ($26 billion) during the
period, according to China's State Post Bureau.
Write to Joanne Chiu at joanne.chiu@wsj.com
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