A courier en route to deliver packages in Beiing, Oct 11, 2014. [Photo/IC]

BEIJING -- The explosive growth of the Chinese express delivery market slowed during the Spring Festival holiday, as many couriers followed the tradition of taking time off to return to their hometowns.

Couriers delivered more than 10 million parcels between Feb 6 and 12, up 25 percent year-on-year, the State Post Bureau (SPB) said on Sunday. State-run EMS and private S.F. Express accounted for over 90 percent of the total.

However, the growth pace was slower than the 48 percent registered in the whole of 2015. The seven-day Spring Festival holiday, which started on Feb 7 this year, is usually a slack period for express delivery.

The SPB said the sector will soon return to more rapid growth, helped by a Valentine's Day shopping spree. The business volume rose to 2.9 million deliveries on Feb. 12.

The express delivery sector has boomed thanks to the rise of e-commerce. In 2015, courier companies delivered 7.8 times more packages and made 3.8 times more revenue than they did in 2010.