China's courier sector reached a new milestone on Sunday as annual parcel volume surpassed 180 billion items for the first time, underscoring the robust growth of the country's postal and express delivery industry and the strong momentum of its economy, according to the State Post Bureau on Monday.

Real-time monitoring by the bureau showed the 180 billion mark was reached after an online order for a smart learning device was placed by a resident in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. The parcel, destined for Li Xiaojun, was processed at a fully automated warehouse belonging to e-commerce platform JD.com before being transported by an unmanned delivery vehicle and handed over for final doorstep delivery — a vivid example of the increasingly automated logistics chain common in China's major cities.

At JD's Pingshan grid warehouse station in Shenzhen, unmanned vehicles have become part of routine operations. "We handle about 15,000 parcels a day. With five unmanned vehicles, our daily dispatch capacity exceeds 1,000 orders," said An Jixing, head of the station. "They reduce the number of back-and-forth trips for staff, ease their workload and allow them to stay longer in communities to serve customers. The improvement in customer experience is clear."

As the recipient of the milestone parcel, Li said he was surprised to learn his order marked the national record. "I placed the order last night and received it today. It's a learning device for my child — he'll be thrilled," he said. "My wife shops online a lot, and my factory also relies on courier services. Everything has become much faster and more precise. I didn't realize parcel volumes were this enormous every year."

The courier who delivered the record-setting package, Zhang Fan, said the rise of automation has changed his work for the better. Serving more than 2,000 house-holds in a Shenzhen neighborhood, he said unmanned vehicles have significantly improved efficiency. "Before, I had to travel nearly 6 kilometers one way just to pick up packages four times a day," he said. "Now unmanned vehicles bring parcels to a transfer point just a few hundred meters from the community. I can focus more on deliveries and spend more time talking with customers and collecting parcels."

The record-setting parcel highlights the industry's deep integration of technology with production. In warehouses, robots now handle shelving, picking and outbound operations. In sorting centers, artificial intelligence-powered vision systems scan parcels within milliseconds, reducing error rates. In transport, industry-specific large models help optimize routing. For pickup and delivery operations, drones, unmanned vehicles and robots are being deployed in more pilot scenarios to reduce costs.

China now processes an average of more than 16 billion parcels per month, with peak single-day volume reaching 777 million — more than 6,200 parcels every second.

Liu Jiang, director of strategic planning research at the bureau's development and research center, said macroeconomic policies and progress in building a unified national market have strengthened demand and production. "The scale effect of the courier industry continues to grow, making it an important driver of consumption, domestic demand and stable growth," he said. "Technology has become a strong engine, injecting lasting vitality into the market."

In Shenzhen, where the record parcel was delivered, the local sector is emerging as a bellwether of innovation. Liu Xiaoqing, deputy head of the office of the Shenzhen Municipal Postal Administration, said the city has accelerated the development of new quality productive forces. "Shenzhen has deployed 180 unmanned vehicles in the postal and parcel delivery sector, capable of handling more than 100,000 parcels per day," he said. "The industry invested over 150 million yuan ($21 million) this year to upgrade equipment, and our drone delivery system now operates eight bases and more than 500 routes, achieving two-hour delivery within the same city and three-hour delivery between cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area."

At a national postal conference earlier this year, the State Post Bureau set ambitious targets for 2025 — 190 billion express parcels and 1.5 trillion yuan in revenue, following the record 174.5 billion parcels handled in 2024. With the 180 billion mark already reached in the first 11 months, the sector is moving steadily toward achieving those goals, underscoring the continued expansion and resilience of the world's largest express delivery market.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn