On September 18, four express companies, SF Express, YTO Express, Yunda and Shentong, released their August operating briefings.

　　Data show that the business revenue and completion volume of various express companies continued to grow in August, but low-price competition continued.

　　Industry continues to develop

　　From the overall performance of the industry, the scale of the express delivery industry grew steadily in August.

　　According to the State Post Bureau, the business volume of express service companies across the country completed 8.99 billion pieces in August, a year-on-year increase of 24.3%.

Specific to each express company, August revenue and order volume showed an upward trend.

In terms of revenue from high to low, SF Express, Yunda, YTO and Shentong's August express delivery business revenues were 13.871 billion yuan, 3.128 billion yuan, 2.936 billion yuan and 1.78 billion yuan respectively.

However, in terms of the year-on-year growth rate of express business revenue, YTO ranked the highest with 28.64%, while SF Express, Yunda, and Shentong were 23.44%, 15.34% and 7.18% respectively.

　　Judging from the amount of business completed in August, Yunda has the highest completed amount with 1.525 billion votes.

YTO, Shentong and SF Express completed 1.38 billion votes, 914 million votes and 868 million votes respectively in August.

From the perspective of the year-on-year growth rate of the completed business, SF Express's growth rate was the largest with 33.13%, and the growth rates of YTO, Yunda and Shentong were 27.32%, 15.89% and 13.66% respectively.

　　At the end of August, six express delivery companies, including Shentong, Zhongtong, YTO, Best, Yunda and Jitu, announced that they would increase the delivery fee per ticket by 0.1 yuan from September 1, 2021.

From the perspective of industry development, this increase in distribution fees is one of the measures to protect the courier group.

On July 10, the Ministry of Transport, the State Post Bureau, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration of Market Supervision, and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions jointly issued the "Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Protecting the Legal Rights and Interests of the Courier Group" , Seeking logistics companies to protect the legitimate rights and interests of express employees.

　　In this regard, S&P Credit Ratings released a report in September that it is expected that this may raise the threshold of the express delivery industry, effectively regulate the behavior boundaries of operators, and restrict the behavior of express companies in low-price competition.

　　Price quagmire continues

　　From the perspective of single ticket revenue in August, SF Express had the highest single ticket revenue in August, which was 15.98 yuan.

The single ticket revenue of Yuantong, Yunda and Shentong was 2.13 yuan, 2.05 yuan and 1.95 yuan respectively.

Among them, the unit price of Shentong has fallen below the 2 yuan mark for two consecutive months.

　　From the year-on-year decline in single ticket revenue, Shentong’s single ticket revenue fell the most in August, down 7.58% year-on-year, followed by SF Express, down 6.6% year-on-year, and finally Yunda, down 3.3% year-on-year.

Yuantong's August express service single ticket revenue increased by 1.03% year-on-year.

Vertically, the price war has been going on for some time.

　　YTO’s financial report for the first half of the year showed that YTO’s single-ticket express product revenue and single-ticket gross profit declined rapidly in the first half of 2021.

In the first half of this year, YTO's single-ticket express product revenue was 2.18 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.62%.

The gross profit per ticket was RMB 0.1, down 55.14% year-on-year.

YTO said in its financial report that the company's main express delivery business income mainly comes from e-commerce users, so it is affected by the development of the e-commerce industry.

　　In addition, homogeneous competition is also a problem that the express industry needs to face.

YTO said in the report that because the industry concentration continues to focus on leading companies, and the products and services in the same industry have a high degree of homogeneity, if the company cannot achieve differences by improving service quality, focusing on cost control, and improving product structure in the future To improve the competitiveness of the industry, it may face the risk of a decline in business volume and market share.

　　S&P Credit Rating believes that although regulatory policies restrict low-price competition in the express delivery industry, the overall financial risks of the industry are still on the rise, and some companies may gradually expose risks in the next two years.

The increase in financial risks in the express delivery industry is mainly caused by two pressures.

On the one hand, in the case of relatively homogeneous services, the past fierce price competition has put pressure on the overall profitability of the industry. This is reflected in the gradual decline in single ticket prices in the past few years, and the rapid decline of single ticket gross profit or even break-even. At this point, the ability of some companies to support debt by cash flow and earnings has shown a significant weakening.

On the other hand, in response to fierce competition, major companies may continue to increase capital expenditures to maintain market share, and debt scale may continue to grow.

In order to gain a larger market share, further dilute costs and maintain market position, some express companies may increase capital expenditures, thereby driving the overall increase in the industry's financial risks.

　　Author: Lu Hanzhi