ZTO May 19, 2026

ZTO Express Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Volume Surges 13.2% While AI and Anti-Involution Drive Profitability Expansion

Summary

ZTO Express delivered a quarter of structural transformation in Q1 2026, outpacing the broader industry with parcel volume growth of 13.2% to 9.67 billion units while actively leading the sector away from destructive price wars. The company reported adjusted operating profit up 22% year-over-year, driven by a favorable mix shift toward higher-value retail and reverse logistics parcels, alongside disciplined cost management that lowered unit sorting and transportation costs by six cents. Management framed the current environment as a decisive pivot from scale-driven expansion to value-driven profitability, with regulatory anti-involution policies successfully curbing low-price competition and restoring pricing discipline across the network.

Looking ahead, ZTO is doubling down on technology and operational resilience. AI integration is no longer experimental; digital twins and machine vision have slashed sorting errors by over 60%, while automated customer service handles 70% of end-to-end tickets. The company maintained its full-year volume guidance of 10% to 13% growth, signaling confidence that its cost moat and service quality improvements will continue to attract market share even as the industry matures. With capital expenditures capped and a commitment to enhanced shareholder returns through dividends and buybacks, ZTO is positioning itself as the definitive beneficiary of China’s logistics sector consolidation.

Key Takeaways

  • Parcel volume reached 9.67 billion in Q1 2026, growing 13.2% year-over-year and significantly outpacing the 5.8% industry average.
  • Market share expanded by 1.4 percentage points, reinforcing ZTO’s dominant position in the Chinese express delivery market.
  • Adjusted operating profit surged 22% year-over-year to CNY 2.6 billion, excluding non-operating items like government subsidies.
  • Adjusted net income rose 5.2% to CNY 2.38 billion, reflecting sustained profitability despite macroeconomic headwinds.
  • Retail parcel volume exploded by 65% year-over-year, with daily volumes hitting 9.7 million units in Q1 and reversing into a high-margin growth engine.
  • Combined unit sorting and transportation costs fell by CNY 0.06, driven by economies of scale, automated sorting hubs, and optimized line-haul routing.
  • Average selling price (ASP) for core express delivery increased 8.2% (CNY 0.11), supported by a 18-cent positive impact from higher-value key account mix.
  • AI deployment is now a core operational pillar, with 3D digital twins and machine vision cutting sorting errors by over 60% across 25 centers.
  • Customer service AI now automatically processes 70% of end-to-end tickets, while proprietary high-precision mapping has reduced last-mile dispatch costs by 20% for large outlets.
  • Management maintained full-year parcel volume guidance of 10% to 13% (42.37 to 43.52 billion units), signaling confidence in continued share gains despite industry deceleration.
  • Anti-involution regulatory policies are actively shrinking low-price parcel volumes, restoring pricing discipline and allowing ZTO to grow both volume and profitability simultaneously.
  • ZTO is preparing for the eventual rollout of social security mandates for couriers, viewing compliance as aligned with long-term network stability and cost control, despite short-term per-parcel cost increases.

Full Transcript

Operator: Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sophie Li. Please go ahead.

Sophie Li, Investor Relations, ZTO Express: Thank you Kelly. Hello everyone and thank you for joining us today. The company’s results and investor relations presentation were released earlier today and are available on the company’s IR website at zto.investorroom.com. On the call today from ZTO are Mr. Meisong Lai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Mrs. Huiping Yan, Chief Financial Officer.

Lai will give a brief overview of the company’s business operations and highlights, followed by Mrs. Yan, who will go through the financials and guidance. They will both be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. I remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company’s control, which may cause the company’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding this and the other risks, uncertainties and factors is included in the company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law. It is now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Meisong Lai.

Lai will read through his prepared remarks in their entirety in Chinese before I translate for him in English. Lai Dong, 请. [Foreign language]

Meisong Lai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ZTO Express: 大家好,感谢各位参加今天的电话会议。2026年,在宏观经济稳中有进、消费需求持续释放的良好环境下,快递行业整体保持增长,业务量同比增长5.8%。随着行业政策持续深化,价格秩序稳步修复,竞争加速回归理性,行业经营质量显著改善,为头部企业高质量发展创造了有利条件。报告期内,公司牢牢把握行业机遇,核心指标表现亮眼。公司业务量完成96.7亿件,同比增长13.2%,增速显著高于行业增速,市场份额提升1.4个百分点,领先地位持续巩固。调整后净利润23.8亿元,同比增长5.2%。去除非经营性因素,调整后经营利润同比提升22%,盈利能力稳健提升。闪送业务同比增长65%,产品结构持续优化。单票分解成本同比下降六分,数字化与精细化运营成效显著,成本壁垒进一步加固。以制度优异业绩的取得源于政策环境、战略定力、运营效率、产品创新的多重驱动。首先,宏观经济与消费环境持续向好,线上消费稳健增长,行业监管导向清晰,调控精准有效,为快递行业健康可持续发展提供了坚实基础和关键保障。其次,公司坚定紧跟政策导向,主动维护行业良性生态。作为行业龙头,我们坚决拥护反内卷政策,带头维护公平有序的市场秩序,坚持理性竞争、价值竞争,与全行业共建健康发展环境。第三,公司坚守长期主义战略定力,不追求短时接近扩张,始终以网络健康、服务提升、盈利稳健为核心,持续夯实基础设施,深化数字化运营,提升全链路管理能力,产品竞争力不断强化。第四,公司通过中转效能优化、运输组织提效、分解精细化管理,实现单票成本持续下行,成本优势转化为可持续的盈利优势与竞争壁垒。第五,公司紧贴市场需求,优化产品结构,围绕高价值件、逆向件等细分赛道重点突破,打造差异化竞争力,推动业务从电商件单一驱动向多元化高价值结构转型,盈利能力与抗周期能力显著增强。展望下一阶段,公司将继续以高质量发展为核心,坚守长期主义,聚焦价值创造,重点部署以下五个方面的工作。第一,切实贯彻国家政策与行业监管要求,持续引领行业的反内卷工作,维护好行业的良性竞争环境,推动行业高质量发展。内功。不断推进各方面降本增效措施,提升时效与服务品质,夯实服务壁垒,提升品牌影响能力,以稳健经营与高质量增长兑现长期价值。第三,进一步落实网络管理的公平和透明原则,持续优化网络政策,提升管理能力,让政策更加公平,管理更加高效,网络更加稳健。同时通过数字化赋能、管理输出与精准帮扶,助力全网合作伙伴降本增效,提升经营能力与盈利水平,筑牢公司长期稳定的网络基本盘,构建同建共享、共生共赢的健康生态。第四,切实保障与提升一线快递从业者权益,持续优化激励机制,加强精神关怀,保障快递从业者收入稳步增长,不断提升快递从业者的获得感、成就感与专业荣誉感,夯实公司最核心的服务与运营基础。第五,持续提升股东回报水平,依托稳健现金流与良好盈利基础,完善常态化现金分红与股份回购机制,优化资本回报结构,为股东创造长期稳定、可持续的投资回报。各位投资者,当前行业正处于从规模驱动转向价值驱动的关键转折期,头部集中趋势明显明确,龙头价值将持续凸显。中通将继续以高质量份额、高质量服务、低全链路成本、稳健盈利为核心,坚持不懈地做到三个确保,即确保网络合作伙伴盈利稳步增长,确保业务员收入持续提升,确保中通发展行稳致远。以长期主义价值,追求与广大投资人、全网合作伙伴一起笃定前行,以持续优异的经营成果回报市场,回报股东。谢谢大家。接下来我们请严总介绍财务及股息预期。谢谢。

Sophie Li, Investor Relations, ZTO Express: OK, let me translate first. Hello everyone. Thank you for joining today’s conference call. In the first quarter of 2026, against a backdrop of steady macroeconomic progress and continued growth in consumer demand, China’s express delivery industry maintained overall growth with parcel volume up 5.8% year-over-year. As anti-involution policies continue to deepen, pricing steadily recovered. Competition accelerated to its return to rationality and overall industry operating quality improved significantly, creating favorable conditions for leading enterprises to pursue high quality development. During the quarter, we seized the industry opportunities and delivered strong results across key metrics. Parcel volume reached 9.67 billion, up 13.2% year-over-year, significantly outpacing industry growth with market share expanding by 1.2 percentage points, further solidifying our leadership position. Adjusted net income was CNY 2.38 billion, up 5.2% year-over-year.

Excluding non-operating items, adjusted operating profit increased to 22% year-over-year, reflecting improvements in profitability. Our retail parcel volume grew 65% year-over-year. Product mix continued to optimize. Combined unit cost of transportation and sorting decreased by CNY 0.06 year-over-year, with digitalization and lean management delivering tangible results, further reinforcing our cost advantage. Our strong first quarter performance was driven by a favorable policy environment combined with our strategic focus, operating efficiency and product innovation. First, the continued improvements in the macroeconomic and consumer environment, with steady growth in online consumption alongside clear regulatory guidance and effective policy measures, provided a solid foundation and a strong support for the healthy and sustainable growth of the express delivery industry. Second, we are firmly aligned with policy direction and have been proactively upheld a healthy industry ecosystem.

As the industry leader, we consistently supported the anti-involution policy, took the lead in maintaining market order and are committed to rational and value-driven competition, working with the broader industry to build a healthy environment. Third, we stayed the course on our long-term strategy without pursuing short-term aggressive expansion and remain focused on network health, service improvement and profitability. We continue to strengthen infrastructure, deepen digitalization and enhance end-to-end management capabilities, continuously building long-term competitiveness. Fourth, through optimization of transit efficiency, through improvements in organization and refined sortation management, we achieved a further reduction in unit costs, converting cost advantages into competitive moat in profitability. Fifth, we closely checked the market demand and optimized our product mix with focused efforts on higher value retail parcels, reverse logistics, and other differentiated offerings.

This drove a structural shift from single channel e-commerce volume towards a more diversified and improved value mix, meaningfully strengthening both profitability and resilience against the business cycles. Looking ahead, we will continue to prioritize high quality development, thinking long term, and insist upon value creation. Our key priorities for the next phase are as the following. First, fully implement national policy and industry regulatory requirements, continue to lead the industry’s anti-involution efforts, safeguard a healthy competitive environment, and drive the industry toward high quality development. Second, deepen our core business internal strengths and capabilities. We will continue to advance cost initiatives for efficiency gain across all fronts, enhance timeliness and customer satisfaction, solidify our service reach, and enhance brand premium, delivering long-term value through discipline and sound execution. Third, further integrate the principles of fairness and transparency into network management.

Continue to optimize network policies and improve network management capabilities, making our policies more equitable, our management more efficient, and our network more stable and resilient. At the same time, through digitization, best practice or expertise sharing and targeted cultivation, we will help our network partners to reduce costs, improve operational capabilities and profitability, reinforcing the foundation and building a healthy ecosystem of shared success with mutual prosperity. Fourth, genuinely protect the rights and the well-being of frontline couriers. We will continue to optimize incentive mechanisms, strengthen care and recognition, ensure steady income growth for couriers and continuously enhance their sense of fulfillment, accomplishment, and professional pride, assuring the most essential of our service and operations. Fifth, continuously enhance shareholder returns.

Backed by strong profitability and cash flow, we will refine our regular cash dividend and share repurchase mechanisms, optimize our capital re-return structure, and deliver consistent returns to our shareholders. To all of our investors, our industry is at a critical inflection point, transitioning from scale-driven to value-driven development. This consolidation among leading players is apparent, and the value of the industry leaders will continue to be prominent. ZTO will stay committed to high quality market presence, high quality service, low end-to-end costs, and sound profitability. We will relentlessly deliver on our three key commitments, which are steady earnings growth for our network partners, continuous wage improvements for our couriers, and healthy longevity for ZTO. Guided by our long-term value principles, we look forward to moving forward alongside our network partners with confidence in turning in consistently outstanding report cards to the market and our shareholders.

Next, let’s invite our CFO, Ms. Huiping Yan, to present the financial results and guidance.

Huiping Yan, Chief Financial Officer, ZTO Express: Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Sophie. Hello to everyone on the call. As I go through our financials, please note that unless specifically mentioned, all numbers quoted are in RMB and percentage changes refer to year-over-year comparisons. Detailed information on our financial performance, unit economics, and cash flow results are posted on our website, and I’ll go through some of the highlights here. In the first quarter, we continued to adhere to our quarterly first strategy, which is consistent with the regulatory call against involution. As our operating efficiency continues to lead the industry, we achieved increases in both volume and profit. Our parcel volume grew by 13.2% to RMB 9.7 billion, with a 1.4 point increase in market presence. Our total revenue increased 22% to RMB 13.3 billion.

Excluding non-operating factors such as government subsidies or tax rebates, which fluctuate from quarter to quarter throughout the year, our adjusted operating profit increased by 22% to reach CNY 2.6 billion. Adjusted net income was CNY 2.4 billion, which increased 5.2%. ASP for our core express delivery rose CNY 0.11, or 8.2%, driven by a CNY 0.18 positive impact from increased KA volume mix, led by higher value reverse logistics, offsetting CNY 0.09 increase in volume incentives. Increase in average parcel weight brought an additional CNY 0.02 lift to our ASP. Total cost of revenue was CNY 10 billion, which increased 22.5%. Overall unit cost for the core express delivery business increased 8.8% or CNY 0.08, which includes KA cost increase of CNY 0.15 that was consistent with the strategic expansion of our KA volume.

The combined unit sorting and transportation costs decreased by 8.8% or CNY 0.06, driven largely by economies of scale. Specifically, unit cost of line haul transportation decreased 10.5% to CNY 0.37, reflecting optimized route planning and enhanced load efficiency. Unit sorting costs decreased 6.4% to CNY 0.25, thanks to continued improvements in labor and automation productivity. Gross profit increased 20.3% to CNY 3.2 billion, and gross profit margin rate decreased slightly by 0.3 percentage points to 24.4%. SG&A expenses, excluding SBC, increased 14.9% to CNY 594.5 million. SG&A, excluding SBC as a percentage of revenue, declined to 4.5%, reflecting strong corporate cost efficiency.

Income from operations increased 5.8% to CNY 2.5 billion, associated margin rate decreased 2.9 points to 19.2%. Operating cash flow was CNY 2.8 billion for the quarter, representing an 18% increase. Adjusted EBITDA increased 6.9% to CNY 3.9 billion, capital expenditure for the quarter was total CNY 1.8 billion. We anticipated annual CapEx in 2026 to be around CNY 60 billion. To be CNY 6 billion, I’m sorry. Moving on to our guidance. Based on current market and operating conditions, we are maintaining our previous guidance for the year that parcel volume growth of 10%-13% year-over-year, representing a parcel volume range of 42.37 billion to 43.52 billion.

These estimates reflect management’s current preliminary view and are subject to change. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the line for questions. Thank you.

Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. For the sake of keeping to time today, please limit your questions to 2 per person. The first question comes from Qianlei Fan with Morgan Stanley.

Qianlei Fan, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Thank you, operator. Let me translate for myself. Thank you management for taking my questions, and congratulations on the very strong profit growth, excluding government grants. I have two questions. The 1st question is about unit cost. We have seen a very impressive unit cost reduction in the 1st quarter this year, and it has been better compared with management’s full year target set at the beginning of the year. Want to discuss what’s the key drivers of the cost efficiency gain in the 1st quarter? Any changes to our full year cost reduction target? I specifically want to discuss the impact from diesel price hikes on unit cost going forward. The second question is about anti-involution.

How has the policy initiatives playing out year to date? What’s the management’s outlook on industry pricing dynamics going forward in the rest of the year? Specifically want to understand whether industry price dynamics could fully pass through the potential cost inflation from diesel price hikes. Thank you.

Huiping Yan, Chief Financial Officer, ZTO Express: We also implemented tier incentives for low rates, which correlated with volume levels, hence fully leverage economies of scale so as to improve overall loading efficiency. Third, we continuously improved fleet management by establishing refined standardized cost model for vehicle operations and maintenance as benchmark for our drivers, thereby lowering operating and maintenance cost continuously. In terms of sorting cost, on one hand, we continue to invest in automated equipment that is armed with digitized solutioning at our sorting hubs, utilizing real-time monitoring and upgrading old equipment to improve operational efficiency and facility automation level while controlling costs. On the other hand, we have reviewed our workforce deployment and enhanced individual accountability by a clear reward and reprimand mechanism, hereby boosting per capita productivity.

In terms of our cost per reduction targets, we expect the core transit-related costs to further decrease for the full year. Beyond transit centers, we will place greater emphasis on end-to-end cost reduction. This year, we will focus heavily on network optimization, further empowering our outlets and enhancing their operational capabilities as well. We’ll continue to encourage outlets to install automated equipment, deploy unmanned vehicles, and promote direct link models to continuously reduce last mile cost. This entire end-to-end cost focus will further improve our own sorting and transit-related costs as well, because it’s all integrated and interrelated. As far as the impact on the fuel prices, due to the tension in the Middle East, domestic diesel prices increased significantly in March.

As international tension continued to be managed, price has somewhat declined in late April. The price recovery driven by the anti-involution policies has largely offset the impact of high fuel costs, and certain provinces have absorbed rising diesel costs through fuel surcharges. Oil price volatility is expected to have limited impact on our total network-wide cost in the second quarter. For the question relating to anti-involution. Since the Chinese New Year, the anti-involution policy has been consistently implemented and the effects are meaningful, particularly in major high volume regions. Enforcement has been progressively tightened in certain provinces where implementation had previously lagged.

As the policy continues to take effect, the volume of low price parcel has continued to shrink, driving a further recovery in price level and effectively restoring the level of interest of both outlets and couriers. Benefiting from this improving competitive environment, the company has achieved simultaneous growth in volume and pricing with restoration of market share. As the industry leader, ZTO remains committed to stay closely aligned with the government’s anti-involution initiatives. We will continue our balanced development strategy that prioritizes service quality while effectively safeguarding the rights and interests of our last mile network. We are confident that with productive regulatory guidance, the industry will develop in a healthier manner, more orderly competitive competition, and also pricing level will be stable overall.

Operator: Your next question comes from Steve Chu with Goldman Sachs.

Steve Chu, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: 那么我想问未来在AI的时代,我们如何去巩固和扩大我们在技术方面的一个领先优势?那有哪些已经落地的和AI相关的举措,以及未来对AI和快递各个环节赋能的一个展望。

Thanks management for taking my questions. I’d like to ask the questions on AI. ZTO was an early mover in large scale adoption of electronic waybills and automated sorting in the past, which established a first mover advantage. I want to ask, in the AI era, how do you consolidate and expand this technology leadership? Could you share what initiatives have already been implemented as well as your outlook on how AI will empower the various stages of the express delivery value chain going forward? Thank you.

Meisong Lai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ZTO Express: 感谢你的提问。我们的核心思路是让AI深度融入全链路,从降本增效走向经营赋能。已落地的成效主要体现在三方面。 一、分拣单。3D数字孪生加支持视觉已覆盖25个中心,错误分率降低60%以上,显著节省人工成本。 二、客服单。智能客服自动处理超70%全链路工单。问小通等智能体覆盖网点80%日常咨询,一季度在线减人工率再降五个百分点。 三、末端调度。自研高精度地图在驿站选址、配送路径规划等场景深度应用,帮助大型网点降低20%以上的散播成本。在散件业务里也实现了支撑日均千万级订单精准调度。 在大规模应用上,我们正推动从执行工具向经营决策升级。我们上线的智能问诉系统已应用于客户分析、路由规划、外部指数、操作运营分析、服务质量、网点竞感成本等领域,让管区的经营决策分析从几天缩短到小时间。 展望未来,我们将构建多智能体架构,让系统自主给出运营各环节优化建议。未来半年内完成语音客服AI升级,覆盖全网近6,000家网点。 总之,AI已成为中通核心战略之一,我们将持续把技术转化为成本与时效优势,巩固领先地位,为投资人创造长期价值。谢谢。

Huiping Yan, Chief Financial Officer, ZTO Express: Thank you for your question. Our core strategy is to continuously deepen integration of our AI technology across the entire network, including transition from cost reduction and efficiency enhancements to operational empowerment. The tangible results achieved to date are primarily reflected in 3 areas. 1. Sorting operations. The combination of 3D digital twins and machine vision technology has been deployed across around 25 or so sorting centers, reducing the missorting rate by over 60%, while significantly lowering labor costs. 2. Customer service. Our AI-powered customer service system now automatically process over 70% of end-to-end service tickets. All agents such as 问小通 cover more than 80% of daily business inquiries from network outlets. In the first quarter, the rate of customer service escalations to human agents was further reduced by 5 percentage points. 3. Last mile dispatch. Leveraging our proprietary high-precision mapping data, we have applied AI in scenarios such as last mile post site selection and delivery route optimization. This has helped large network outlets reduce short distance transportation costs by 20%. In the retail parcels business, our AI system now support the clear dispatch of tens of millions of daily orders. In an era of large language models, we are advancing their evolution of implementation by from execution tools to operational decision making partners. Our smart data inquiry system has been deployed across various domains, including customer analytics, route planning, e-commerce platform service index monitoring, operational performance analysis, service quality assessment and inbound cost management for network outlets.

As a result, the time required for operational decision making at the regional management level has been shortened from several days to just hours. Looking ahead, we will continue to build a multi-agent architecture that enables the system to autonomously provide optimization recommendations across various operational functions. Within the next 6 months, we plan to complete the upgrade of our voice customer service AI, which will be deployed across nearly 6,000 network outlets nationwide. In summary, AI technology and its implementation has become a core strategy prioritized for ZTO. We will continue to translate technological advancements into cost and time efficiency advantages, further solidifying our leadership position and generate long-term value for our shareholders.

Meisong Lai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ZTO Express: 谢谢。

Operator: Your next question comes from Aaron Luo with UBS.

Aaron Luo, Analyst, UBS: 赖总、严总、楚飞总,好呀。感谢你们接受我的提问。我这边有两个问题。第一个是我们观察到在反内卷这个背景下,行业增速是有所退坡的,所以想跟你们请教一下,就是目前你们对行业增速的预期是不是发生了变化?那第二个就是竞争格局是否也在加速分化,就在这个背景下。那第二个问题是关于咱们的散件业务的,想再跟您们跟进一下咱们散件业务的发展情况,包括目前散件业务的单票利润的水平是如何的。Uh, let me translate myself.

Thank you management for taking my question. I have two of them. First, we have observed that industry growth has decelerated against the backdrop of the anti-involution trend. Could you please kindly share your latest outlook on industry growth expectations and whether the competitive landscape is experiencing accelerated divergence? Second, regarding our retail parcel business, could you please kindly provide an update on its current development status and the parcel profit level at this stage? Thank you so much.

Meisong Lai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ZTO Express: 感谢你的提问。第一个问题就是增速预期和竞争格局。随着反内卷持续推进,低价无序竞争逐步出清,行业正从粗放式规模扩张转向高质量发展、经营质量优先的新阶段。经历阶段性调整后,行业增长节奏更趋稳健,增长重心从单纯件量增速转向规模、效益、质量协同提升的可持续增长。快递行业竞争本质是服务品质、成本优势与网络能力的综合较量。伴随行业高质量转型,份额加速向头部集中,格局分化明显。竞争焦点从价格战转向综合实力比拼。中通坚持量质并举,一方面夯实件量领先地位,合理维护服务溢价,另一方面持续强化成本优势,拉大服务品质差距,推动市场份额与经营质量同步提升,巩固行业龙头的领先优势。第二个散件业务发展和这个利润的情况。散件业务,尤其是逆向件业务的快速发展,是中通在行业高质量发展背景下践行量质并举策略、打造产品分层体系的重要成果。今年一季度,我们散件日均件量约970万单,这个增速是很明显的。进入二季度,我们逆向件规模进一步增长,日均件量超过940万单。尽管逆向件的价格因市场竞争有所回落,但得益于规模效应与精细化的成本管控,使单票成本也在持续优化。目前逆向件的单票利润贡献乃高于普通电商进件,有效提升了公司整体的单票盈利能力。谢谢。

Huiping Yan, Chief Financial Officer, ZTO Express: Thank you for your question. Your first question relates to the industry growth and competitive landscape. As the anti-involution policy continues to advance, low price competition is gradually diminishing. The industry is shifting from extensive scale-driven expansion to higher quality development based on operational efficiency. Following a period of adjustment, the industry’s growth trajectory has become more pragmatic.

volume growth to sustainable growth driven by synergistic improvements across scale, profitability and service quality. The nature of competition in the express delivery industry involves a comprehensive contest of service quality, cost advantage and network capability.

As the industry transitions towards higher quality development, market share is expected to further consolidate among top players, and the competitive landscape is becoming even more polarized. The competitive focus has shifted from price driven to relying on comprehensive strength. ZTO is committed to pursuing both volume and quality growth. On one hand, we will solidify our leading position in parcel volume while sustaining our brand premium, which is based on service reach and stability. On the other hand, we will further strengthen our cost advantage and widen the service quality gap versus peers. This will drive concurrent gains in both market share and operating efficiency, enforcing our leading position in the industry. Your second question relating to our retail parcel businesses. The rapid development of our retail parcel business, specifically the reverse logistics parcels, is an outcome of our volume quality balanced strategy and our commitment to build a tiered product portfolio amid the industry’s high quality development. In Q1, average daily retail parcel volume reached approximately 9.7 million, which indicates a meaningful growth rate. In the second quarter, our reverse logistics parcel volume further increased with our average daily volume exceeding 9.4 million. Although the price of reverse logistics parcel has slightly declined due to competition, the unit cost has continued to optimize through economies of scale and refined cost management. Currently, the unit profit contribution of reverse logistics parcel remains higher than that of our traditional e-commerce parcels.

Aaron Luo, Analyst, UBS: 谢谢赖总、严总。

Operator: Your next question comes from Mujin Lin with CITIC Securities.

Mujin Lin, Analyst, CITIC Securities: 好的,谢谢。赖总、严总、Sophie总,各位领导上午好。我是中信证券交通物流研究团队的林木槿,也非常感谢管理层给我们团队这个提问的机会。我这边可能主要就想请教一个小问题,就是目前我们也看到,在广东、山东等地,陆陆续续有推进这个小规模的权益保障的这样一个立法进程在做。那么想请教一下各位领导,就是我们怎么去展望今年下半年社保推进的一个节奏。那如果下半年社保在这个主要的产粮区逐步去落地,那我们对这个全网成本端的一个量化的影响是否有一个大概的指引或者分析?我的问题就是这个,谢谢。然后我翻译一下我自己的问题。So first of all, thank you for picking me up, and I guess my question will go with the legislation of the protective rights of delivery workers. So as we can see that the legislation of protecting the rights of delivery workers is being gradually implemented in places like Guangdong and Shandong and so on. So how should we envision the pace of the Social Security promotion?

If it is gradually implemented in the second half of the year, would that be any guidance regarding to the quantitative impact on the cost of the entire network? [Foreign language]

Meisong Lai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ZTO Express: 感谢你的提问。中通自成立以来,始终践行同建共享理念,高度关注网络合作伙伴与一线快递员的权益。我们认为社保缴纳与反内卷政策本质一致,核心都是保障基层权益,推动行业健康发展。我们也非常欢迎社保政策的早日落地。短期来看,社保政策落地会相应增加单票成本,但从长远来看,建立稳定有保障的用工机制,有助于增强网络凝聚力,降低人员流失率,从而进一步夯实末端服务质量。作为头部企业,中通将继续发挥表率作用,推动行业在合规基础上实现高质量发展。未来如有具体的社保落地措施出台,我们将积极响应政府号召,主动配合。

Huiping Yan, Chief Financial Officer, ZTO Express: Thank you very much for your question. I’ll translate and supplement for Chairman’s answer. Since the establishment of our shared success philosophy and practice, we place a high priority on the rights and interests of our network partners and frontline couriers. We believe that the implementation of Social Security coverage is aligned with the objective of anti-involution policy, as both aim to safeguard frontline workers’ interests and promote healthy industry development. We welcome the early implementation of Social Security policies. In the short term, the rollout of these policies may lead to an increase in per parcel cost. However, from a long-term perspective, establishing a more stable and secured employment system will enhance network cohesiveness, reduce workforce turnover, and further solidify the quality of our last mile services.

As an industry leader, ZTO will continue to lead by example to promote the sector’s compliant, compliance high quality development. If more specific Social Security implementation measures are introduced, we will proactively respond to the government’s call and fully support policy implementation. As we have been previously communicating that, on our consolidated group, our compliance level with the Social Security is much higher. Yes, indeed, at the outlets level, there are various different practices. There the major impact perhaps will come from the network partners, and we will be supportive in helping our network partner to become compliant and also help them reducing costs as what we are currently implementing is indeed will generating results to help them coping with any additional cost increases coming from the Social Security policies implementation.

Hope that answers your question.

Mujin Lin, Analyst, CITIC Securities: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Huiping Yan for any closing remarks.

Huiping Yan, Chief Financial Officer, ZTO Express: Thanks everybody for joining us for the call again today. We have generated positive results and performance going forward are continuously relying on our strategy of a balanced approach with quality first and scale and volume improvements with reasonable level of profit that is equitably shared among our brand participants. Going forward, we look forward to speaking with you again and thanks again for your support and attention.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.