Workers sort parcels at a transit hub of SF Express in Tianjin, north China, June 18, 2024. (Photo/Li Ran, Xinhua)

Beijing - China's courier sector handled 174.5 billion parcels in 2024, a surge of 21 percent year on year, the State Post Bureau (SPB) announced on Wednesday.

The sector's total revenue expanded 13 percent year on year to 1.4 trillion yuan (about 195 billion U.S. dollars) last year, according to the SPB.

For the postal industry, the total 2024 delivery volume climbed 19 percent year on year to 193 billion packages, and its revenue was up 11 percent to 1.7 trillion yuan.

China's courier sector reached a historic milestone in 2024, when its annual express delivery volume surpassed the 150-billion-parcel mark for the first time, just a decade after the country's total parcel volume had crossed the 10-billion mark in 2014.

China now handles more than 5,400 parcels per second, and Chinese citizens receive over 100 parcels on average per person annually, according to SPB data revealed last November.

Behind the rapid expansion was China's brisk consumption and advances in logistics technology and infrastructure, highlighted by investments in unmanned vehicles, drones and automated sorting systems, all of which have elevated both network capacity and service quality.

In 2024, the courier sector deployed nearly 1,000 unmanned vehicles and over 300 drones, and approximately 3 million deliveries were made by drones, according to the SPB, which noted that smart packing technology has also significantly reduced the use of packaging materials.

Looking ahead, the SPB expects the postal industry to maintain steady growth in 2025. It projects that the industry's business revenue will grow by about 6 percent to 1.8 trillion yuan.

It said that the courier sector could handle 190 billion parcels and achieve a business income of 1.5 trillion yuan this year.