The "Double 11" shopping festival is about to kick off, and the courier battlefield is filled with the smoke of competition.

On October 11th, the reporter learned from Jitu Express (01519.HK, stock price 6.43 HKD, market value 57.215 billion HKD) that its Jiangsu Baoying Smart Supply Chain Industrial Park officially started operation. This is Jitu's first domestic transfer hub project that it independently acquired land for and constructed. The project has a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan, with a total construction area of 150,000 square meters, and a peak daily express processing capacity of 6 million pieces, preparing in advance for the upcoming "Double 11" shopping festival.

Just two days earlier (October 9th), Yunda Express announced that in response to the upcoming peak season, its entire network's distribution centers have been fully accelerated. Yunda stated that based on the forecast of package flow and volume during the peak season, more than 180 transfer bases and about 80 hub distribution centers across the network are operating at full capacity, adopting the "just fast" principle to reduce transfer links and shipping and transportation time comprehensively. In addition, STO Express (002468.SZ, stock price 11.44 yuan, market value 17.512 billion yuan) also announced at its network conference at the end of September this year that it will build an express network capable of carrying 100 million packages per day over the next three years.

Amid the increasingly fierce competition in the express delivery industry, "Double 11" remains an important battlefield for major courier companies to showcase their strength and compete for market share. Who can seize opportunities and meet challenges this year's "Double 11," and who can stand out in market competition, has become the biggest highlight of this year's express delivery industry.

The 1.5 billion yuan transfer hub is in place, and Jitu starts the "Double 11" roll.

The reporter learned that the Jitu Jiangsu Baoying transfer hub project was launched in October 2021. The industrial park is equipped with intelligent logistics sorting equipment, including import and export cross-belt,翻盘 sorting machine, unloading port high-speed swing wheel, intelligent scanner, and security inspection machine. In addition to serving as a regional transfer center, the industrial park is also equipped with more than 40,000 square meters of cloud warehouse facilities.

Since Jitu started its domestic network in 2020, its network launch, expansion, and listing speed have set the fastest record among domestic express companies. However, to cope with the growing volume of express business, Jitu has been strengthening infrastructure construction and improving network coverage capabilities over the past two years. According to Jitu's previously released 2024 semi-annual report, its capital expenditure in the first half of the year was mainly used for investing in property, plants, and equipment, intangible assets. In the first half of 2024, Jitu's total capital expenditure was 165 million US dollars.

At the same time, Jitu has been financing. In May this year, Yida Capital and a Middle Eastern consortium injected tens of millions of US dollars into Jitu. This fund will be used to optimize and upgrade the Saudi Arabian network, strengthen its international layout, and upgrade the Middle East localization strategy.

On September 9th, Jitu issued an announcement stating that Huaxing Group (borrower) and Jitu Express and several member companies of Jitu (as guarantors) entered into a financing agreement with (among others) several banks and financial institutions. According to calculations, Jitu will raise a total of more than 8.9 billion yuan in financing. Jitu stated that the financing will be used for the refinancing of its existing debt and general corporate and operational capital purposes.

From the financial data, Jitu's large-scale capital investment has also brought a positive impact on its business side.According to its latest disclosed semi-annual report for 2024, Jitu Express's revenue for the first half of 2024 was approximately $4.862 billion (about 34.9 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 20.6%; net profit was $31.026 million, adjusted profit was $63.248 million, achieving a turnaround from loss to profit, with an adjusted EBITDA of $351 million. In the first half of the year, the global parcel volume was 11.01 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 38.3%.

On October 10th, Jitu voluntarily disclosed its business data for the first three quarters, showing that its Southeast Asian parcel volume was 3.16 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 33.0%; the Chinese parcel volume was 13.887 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 29.8%; the new market parcel volume was 207 million pieces, a year-on-year increase of 32.6%; the total parcel volume was 17.254 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 30.4%. Combining the semi-annual report data of Tongda Express, its business volume growth in the Chinese market for the first half of the year led the top companies.

Several courier companies are preparing in advance for intensified "Tongda Rabbit" competition.

It is worth mentioning that not only Jitu, but also major courier companies have been quietly taking action before the peak season of "Double 11" to fully prepare for the performance sprint.

The reporter learned from the official WeChat public account of Yunda Express that this year's "Double 11" will be at the Jieyang Distribution Center of Guangdong Yunda Express, with more than 100 direct routes pulled straight, and at the Xi'an Distribution Center of Shaanxi Yunda Express, it is expected that nearly 10 direct routes will be pulled straight, adding direct routes from Dalian, Xiamen, Taizhou and other places. Taking Xi'an to Xiamen as an example, about 1800 kilometers, after pulling straight, the parcel does not need to be transferred again and can be directly sent to Xiamen, which also creates conditions for couriers to deliver parcels to consumers' hands earlier.

The person in charge of Yunda Express said that before the peak season this year, Yunda Express strengthened the prediction of the parcel flow and direction of the entire network, using advanced algorithms and big data technology to provide accurate data support for the scientific service business peak season of the entire network, and it is expected that there will be more than a thousand direct routes pulled straight on the urban main lines and the branch lines of the outlets.

On October 11th, Cainiao disclosed to the outside world that before "Double 11", it received unmanned vehicle purchase orders from customers in 7 provinces across the country, and is rushing to complete the delivery before "Double 11". It is understood that through years of research and development and operation, Cainiao has accumulated more than 5 million kilometers of driving mileage of unmanned vehicles on closed, semi-closed and open roads, and has delivered more than 40 million express parcels.

At the same time, according to market news on October 11th, Cainiao joined forces with AliExpress to upgrade the logistics fulfillment service again, and the "Global 5-Day Reach" international express product was expanded to 14 countries, adding Italy, Poland, Japan and other countries, and the "5-Day Free Shipping Area" is accelerating to cover Europe, America and Asia.

The express industry is about to usher in the peak season, and industry insiders believe that the price increase of the industry and the performance of listed companies in the fourth quarter are worth looking forward to. "From the overall data, the industry differentiation is very obvious, and the industry concentration will fully concentrate on the top in the fourth quarter of this year and next year, and the industry integration and reorganization are entering the countdown." Express expert Zhao Xiaomin once said to the reporter.