Shanghai’s airports become major channel for Chinese goods to go global via cross-border e-commerce

BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai’s airports received 440 million export declaration forms of cross-border e-commerce in 2023, which almost doubled year on year and reached a historical high, while the total export value exceeded 85 billion yuan (about 12 billion U.S. dollars). 

Airports in Shanghai have become a major channel for Chinese goods to go global via cross-border e-commerce, according to an Economic Information Daily report, quoting Shanghai Customs.

The highest daily number of such cross-border e-commerce export declarations at Shanghai’s airport ports has exceeded two million beginning from 2024, soaring from the daily average of 1.2 million forms in 2023.

The city’s airports saw export declaration of three e-commerce platforms, SHEIN, Pinduoduo, and TikTok in 2023 increased by more than 10 times that of the previous year. The export declaration from these three companies accounted for more than 30 percent of the total cross-border e-commerce at Shanghai’s airports, according to the statistics of Shanghai Pudong International Airport Customs.

Since its launch in September 2022, Temu, Pinduoduo's cross-border e-commerce platform, has brought many high-quality products from China’s Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, and other provinces into over 40 countries and regions in North America, Australia, Europe, and Asia. More than 400,000 parcels are shipped overseas every day, said head of Temu.

By 2023, cross-border e-commerce logistics companies such as Ideal International Group (YDH), SJL Express, and Sinotrans Express have exported goods through 580 charter flights at airport ports in the city, becoming an essential pillar of cross-border e-commerce export of Shanghai’s airports. (Edited by Yang Linlin with Xinhua Silk Road, linlinyanglyn@163.com)