BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China's logistics sector showed signs of steady recovery in April, with several key indicators improving as industrial and supply chains continued to stabilize, data from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing showed on Monday.
The index tracking the country's logistics market -- an indicator of economic vitality -- stood at 49.7 percent in April, according to the data.
The new orders index came in at 49.8 percent, rising for a second straight month. New orders indices for postal and express delivery, road transport, railway transport and air transport all increased from the previous month, up by 0.3 to 0.6 percentage points.
Profitability in the sector also continued to improve. The logistics service price index edged up 0.3 percentage points from a month earlier, while the sub-index in the railway transport sector edged up 0.4 percentage points.
The data also points to stable market expectations among enterprises for the coming period. Last month, the business activity expectations index stood at 56.3 percent, remaining in expansion territory for four straight months.
"Enterprises showed strong willingness to invest in multimodal transportation, smart supply chains, and low-carbon and green warehousing, transportation and distribution, as well as in equipment upgrades," said Hu Han, deputy chief economist at the China Logistics Information Center.
The continued improvement in these indicators points to better coordination between upstream and downstream demand, smoother logistics operations, and resilient business confidence, Hu added.
Growth momentum was also sustained across subdivided sectors. China's postal and express delivery industry posted a total business volume index of 69.6 percent, remaining in a high expansion range.
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