Chongqing — A box of hardware products from Chongqing's Dazu district moves along an automated sorting line, where it is scanned and directed to its destination within seconds. Nearby, hundreds of machines work in sync, sorting a steady stream of parcels with little human intervention.
The scene reflects a broader transformation in China's express delivery industry, where automation is helping logistics operators cope with surging e-commerce demand. In Chongqing, a major manufacturing and logistics hub in western China, investment in smarter distribution facilities is also improving connections between inland producers and consumers across the country.
J&T Express officially opened its upgraded Chongqing logistics hub on October 25, equipped with 635 automated swivel-wheel units, 18 narrow-belt sorting lines and five cross-belt sorting systems. The facility can currently handle 2.7 million parcels a day, with sorting accuracy exceeding 99%. Its planned daily processing capacity is 5 million parcels.
The upgrade involved an equipment investment of about 300 million yuan (about 42 million U.S. dollars). Serving Chongqing and the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, the hub handles parcel sorting, long-haul transport connections and interregional transfers, strengthening the express delivery network across southwestern China.
Automated parcel sorting system at J&T Express' Chongqing logistics hub. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)
The expansion comes as China enters one of its busiest periods for online shopping and parcel deliveries, driven by major promotional events including Double 11, the country's largest annual online shopping festival.
During the promotional period, the Chongqing hub is expected to handle an average of 2.6 million incoming and outgoing parcels a day, with daily volumes potentially reaching 3.2 million, according to Zhou Qing, deputy general manager of J&T Express in Chongqing.
Handling such volumes requires more than simply increasing sorting capacity. Parcels vary widely in size and shape, and irregularly shaped products, including hardware manufactured in Dazu, can be particularly difficult for conventional sorting equipment.
To address the challenge, J&T has introduced a specialized intelligent sorting system capable of processing 10,000 irregularly shaped items an hour.
Automation has also been extended to the loading process. Eleven sorting lines, supported by integrated parcel separation, security screening, dimension measurement and weighing systems, can prepare 4,500 parcels an hour for loading. Meanwhile, an artificial intelligence-powered monitoring system tracks equipment and operations in real time, helping keep sorting errors below one in every 10,000 parcels.
Beyond processing speed, the facility is also changing how online orders reach consumers.
Its cloud warehouse stocks products from major Chinese household cleaning brands, including Blue Moon and Liby, alongside more than 5,000 categories of Chongqing specialty products.
Under the traditional distribution model, goods are shipped from merchants' warehouses to sorting centers before entering the delivery network. By storing inventory directly at the logistics hub, merchants can bypass part of that process and dispatch orders through the facility's distribution network.
The integrated warehousing and distribution model can reduce order fulfillment times by two to four hours, Zhou said, helping merchants deliver products more quickly while reducing returns.
J&T's investment is part of a wider expansion of logistics infrastructure in Chongqing, as major delivery companies strengthen their operations in the inland municipality.
In May, JD Logistics opened an upgraded regional distribution center in Chongqing's Banan district. Two months later, China Post began operating a new mail processing center in the Chongqing Wansheng Economic and Technological Development Zone.
The investments come amid continued growth in China's express delivery market, fueled by the country's vast e-commerce sector.
According to China's State Post Bureau, the country's express delivery volume surpassed 150 billion parcels on September 29, reaching the milestone 12 days earlier than in 2025.
As parcel volumes rise, logistics operators face growing pressure to deliver goods faster and more accurately while managing sharp fluctuations in demand. Automated sorting, integrated warehousing and AI-powered monitoring are becoming increasingly important tools for improving efficiency and maintaining competitiveness.
This year's peak delivery season is expected to run from late October through Feburary 5, 2027, covering Double 11, Double 12, New Year's Day and the Spring Festival.
The shopping rush will test Chongqing’s sorting capacity and offer a measure of how logistics technology investments affect goods movement, connect regional businesses with China’s consumer market, and support the inland manufacturing hub’s integration into increasingly automated supply chains.