A deliveryman of Shunfeng Express sorts parcels on February 10. Photo: cnsphoto

The operation resumption rate of China's express delivery industry - a crucial sector that many other sectors including e-commerce platforms rely on - has reached 90.2 percent, Chinese government officials said Friday, noting that China's transportation is coming back to normal while challenges still remain amid the epidemic.

During a press conference held by the State Council, Liu Jun, deputy head of China's State Post Bureau, said that about 3 million or 90.2 percent of workers in the express sector have returned to work, with capacity of processing over 160 million packages per day.

By March 4, 163 million pieces of epidemic prevention materials, or 61,900 tons in total, had been transported or delivered, 20,700 vehicles shipped, and 321 cargo flights had been arranged, Liu said.

The operation resumption rate of logistics sector in China by the end of February has also reached more than 60 percent, said Gao Gao, deputy secretary general of National Development and Reform Commission, adding that the resumption rate in logistics parks has reached nearly 90 percent.

According to Gao, there are about 400,000 legal entities related to logistics in China, with more than 50 million employees. and It is estimated that the total amount of social logistics will reach nearly 300 trillion yuan ($43.1 trillion）in 2019, which will continue to grow.

While the resumption rate continues to grow, the challenges caused by the epidemic including the sharp drop of passenger and cargo traffic volume, the delayed project constructions, and the blocked supply chain still remain, according to Liu Xiaoming, vice minister of China's Ministry of Transport.

Due to the impact of the epidemic, the production and operation of logistics enterprises have been greatly affected, and the cost of social logistics has risen in stages. The poor operation of logistics is not conducive to the orderly resumption of work and production of other industries at present and in the next step, Gao noted.

For solving these problems, China has introduced 10 measurers including cutting taxes, waiving highway tolls, government composition and financial support for small and medium logistics companies, Liu said.