Alibaba's logistics arm adds 1,000 flights

Ti Gong

Cainiao Network, Alibaba's logistics arm is adding 1,000 chartered flights by the end of this year as part of its efforts to step up delivery infrastructure investment. 

It intends to reduce average air-freight times to three to five days from the current seven to 10. 

Wan Lin, Cainiao’s president, told the Global Smart Logistics Summit livestreamed from Hangzhou: “Our investment to establish a global smart logistics network, including international shipping routes and warehousing facilities, will provide businesses with greater operational efficiency, cost savings, transparency and accuracy in their supply chain management.” 

The company plans to double the delivery efficiency of cross-border courier packages to facilitate trade. It will also double overseas warehouse space to cover 2 million square meters in three years. 

This would allow Chinese SMEs to pre-stock goods in these overseas warehouses, allowing 90 percent of cross-border orders to be fulfilled within 72 hours in 100 cities around the world. 

Tens of thousands of Cainiao service points will be upgraded to include more community service functions such as the laundering and collection of recyclable waste, the company said.   

Cainiao will also enter 10 manufacturing belt clusters to provide warehouse facilities for 1,000 factories, and optimize the logistics supply chain in over 500 counties in 21 Chinese provinces.   

The State Post Bureau said the total number of domestic courier packages shipped in May went up 41 percent from a year ago to 7.38 billion, thanks to the resumption of most business operations and various forms of stimulus measures introduced to boost online shopping. 

Their combined revenue rose 25 percent to 77.1 billion yuan (US$10.9 billion).