China's Internet of Things: From January to July, the total social logistics amount in the country reached 20.19 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%.

On August 28, the Logistics and Purchasing Federation of China released an analysis of logistics operations from January to July 2025, showing that from January to July, the total social logistics amount in the country was 201.9 trillion yuan, calculated at comparable prices, an increase of 5.2% year-on-year, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the first half of the year. In terms of structure, the resilience of industrial logistics and import logistics continued to be prominent, consolidating the foundation for the growth of logistics demand. At the same time, driven by policies related to large-scale equipment renewal and boosting consumption, the development of new formats in unit households and recycled resources injected new growth momentum into logistics demand. From January to July, the total revenue of the logistics industry was 8.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the first half of the year; in July, the average logistics business volume index for the industry was 50.5 points, with the business volume index for July at 50.5%, continuing to show an expanding trend, with the new order index for logistics enterprises in July at 52.5%, indicating a recovery in business operations. The stable growth of the logistics market scale, strong internal driving force of enterprises, good business conditions, and structural changes are evident. The characteristics of accelerated growth in the central and western regions, continuous leadership in new formats, and strong demand for consumption upgrades highlight new progress in high-quality development. In terms of structure, the growth momentum in the central and western regions has strengthened. The regional development pattern is changing, with growth in the central and western regions leading the country. The business volume index in the western region reached 52.3%, the central region reached 50.9%, both higher than the national average by 1.8 and 0.4 percentage points, indicating that the growth momentum of logistics demand in the central and western regions continues to strengthen. The index for the eastern region was 50.3%, maintaining a steady growth trend, with a pattern of coordinated regional development taking shape. In terms of industry structure, new formats and international logistics have performed outstandingly. New formats continue to show good development trends. The e-commerce express delivery industry continues to operate at a high level, with a business volume index of 69.3%; the aviation transport industry is at 52.8%, a rise of 0.8 percentage points. International logistics is becoming a new growth point: in terms of railway transportation, the cumulative operation of the China-Europe freight train reached 8,526 trains, a year-on-year increase of 23.2%; the cumulative transport of goods across the China-Laos railway reached 3.441 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%, driven by diversified foreign trade policies, the international railway intermodal transport in key regions and nodes maintained a high-speed growth; in terms of air freight, driven by demand from cross-border e-commerce, the volume of international air transport completed in July was 388,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 21.5%, providing strong support for the smooth operation of the domestic and international dual circulation and the guarantee of the supply chain. In the service field, public consumption and basic energy security are well-supported. Logistics support for energy transportation and public consumption is well guaranteed. In terms of e-commerce logistics for service consumption, it exhibits a diversified development characteristic, with the potential for consumption in rural areas continuing to be stimulated, and logistics support and guarantee being effective. In July, the total business volume index for e-commerce logistics was 130.9 points, with the rural e-commerce logistics business volume index at 131.5 points, up 1.1 points from the previous month. In terms of service energy security provided by railway transportation, during the peak summer period, the transportation of electricity coal was well guaranteed, with key materials promptly transported and efficiently delivered. From January to July, national railways transported 1.196 billion tons of coal, of which 816 million tons were electricity coal, maintaining a high level of coal reserves directly supplied to power plants, with transportation volumes for construction materials, smelting materials, and grain increasing by 13.6%, 8.2%, and 12.7% respectively year-on-year in the basic energy sector supply chain operating stably and efficiently. The level of logistics service prices is rising, and improvements in the operating conditions of micro-enterprises are emerging. In July, influenced by seasonal factors and market supply and demand changes, China's logistics service prices showed a differentiated trend. Coastal shipping prices rose slightly, with export container freight rates showing divergent trends, road logistics prices remained stable with a slight decline, and courier prices continued to decline. Coastal bulk cargo freight rates rose slightly. In July, influenced by persistently high temperatures and heavy rainfall across the country, terminal daily consumption remained high, with active replenishment of stocks. With the added factors of typhoons and port closures, some route freight rates continued to rise. As of July 25, the average monthly comprehensive freight index for coastal (bulk) was 1,036.23 points, up 1.0% from the previous month. Export container freight rates showed divergent trends. In July, China's export container composite freight index averaged 1,305.40 points, up 2.2% from the previous month; but the Shanghai export container composite index reflecting the spot market averaged 1,684.06 points, a 16.4% decrease from the previous month, showing a downward trend in spot market booking prices. Road logistics prices declined slightly. In July, China's road logistics price index was 105 points, a 0.05% decline from the previous month, and a 1.8% increase year-on-year. In some regions, road transportation was affected by seasonal factors, and market demand slowed compared to the previous period, with sufficient capacity supply, leading to a slight price drop. Courier prices continued to decline. From January to July, the postal industry's business income and the number of orders showed an increasing trend, but the average price per ticket declined by 7% year-on-year, indicating a continued competitive situation in the industry. The revenue growth rate of enterprises is slowing down, and there are signs of improvement in profitability. From an analysis of key data, driven by stable business volume and stable prices, the growth rate of business income of logistics enterprises has remained relatively stable. From January to July, the year-on-year growth rate of business income of key logistics enterprises was 4.8%, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points from the first half of the year. At the same time, logistics enterprises have continued to improve operational efficiency and profitability, accelerating the turnover efficiency of funds, stabilizing operating costs. From January to July, the cost per 100 yuan of business income of key enterprises was 95.3 yuan, a decrease of 0.2 yuan year-on-year, with the fund turnover rate index rising by 0.2 percentage points from the previous month in July. With the active promotion of transformation and upgrading and fine management, the profitability of logistics enterprises has shown signs of improvement. From an index perspective, the main operating profit index of enterprises was 46.2%, up 0.1 percentage points month-on-month; from an operational indicator perspective, the income profit margin of key logistics enterprises from January to July was 3.4%, an increase of 0.3 percentage points from the first half of the year. In conclusion, since the beginning of this year, China's social logistics operations have continued to show a stable and progressive development trend. Logistics demand continues to grow, the logistics market scale continues to expand, and the structure is further optimized. However, it is important to note that this month, influenced by multiple factors, some logistics indicators have fluctuated, with weak effective demand and low profitability levels for small and medium-sized enterprises still existing. Looking at the warehousing index for this month, the average inventory turnover index was 48.5%, a decrease of 7.2 percentage points from the previous month, falling into the contraction zone; the end-of-period inventory index was 51%, up 3.3% from the previous month, entering the expansion zone. This indicates that the level of linkage between supply chain production and sales has slowed down, the turnover speed of goods has decreased, and inventory levels have generally increased. The Central Political Bureau meeting held on July 30 explicitly stated that it is necessary to "govern enterprise disorderly competition in accordance with the law and regulations, promote capacity governance in key industries", and emphasized "deepening the construction of a unified national large market", in order to break regional protectionism and regional barriers, reduce the overall logistics costs, and unleash market potential. In the next stage, the continuity, stability, flexibility, and predictability of relevant policies are expected to strengthen, creating a more orderly and healthy development environment for logistics operations. Data shows that the business activity expectation index in July remained at a high level of 55.6%, indicating a generally positive outlook for micro-entities on market development, especially in areas such as low-altitude logistics, supply chain integration, and cross-border e-commerce logistics, which are showing a significantly better trend than the overall level of development.