Workers categorizing packages in a post office in Chongqing before the Spring Festival holiday, which started on Jan 22. [Photo / China Daily]

BEIJING - Business volume for China's postal services maintained strong growth in 2011, according to the State Post Bureau, conjuring up promising prospects for the country's logistics companies.

Revenue from China's postal services jumped by 22.3 percent in 2011 to 15.6 billion yuan ($2.4 billion). Half of the revenue (7.58 billion yuan) came from the express business, up 32 percent year-on-year, according to data from the bureau.

Domestic business continued to shore up the express industry in China. Official data showed that revenue from the international express business in 2011 accounted for only 24.4 percent of the industry's total figure, declining 6.7 percentage points from the previous year.

Geologically, East China accounts for 81.1 percent of the country's total express business revenue, almost unchanged from 2010. In comparison, Central China took up 9.9 percent and West China 9 percent.

Analysts said the market was partly driven up by the country's booming e-commerce industry. The country's total online shopping revenue was reckoned to have reached 800 billion yuan in 2011, said He Liming, chairman of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, an industry association.

This generated a total business volume of 3.65 billion pieces of express mail and parcels, He said.

Yet analysts said logistics services need to be further improved and might hold back the development of the country's robust e-commerce industry.

The express companies tend to delay their delivery services especially during holiday seasons when e-commerce companies try to boost sales with promotions. This has given rise to widespread complaints among customers.

Still, the logistics industry is on track for fast development. In 2011, the country's total logistics costs increased by 12 percent from the previous year to 160 trillion yuan, while the industry's added value grew by 14 percent year-on-year to 3 trillion yuan, according to data from China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.