Shanghai's airports record soaring cross-border e-commerce exports

SHANGHAI -- In 2023, Shanghai's airports received 440 million export declaration forms of cross-border e-commerce goods, almost treble that of 2022, with a total export value of more than 85 billion yuan ($12 billion), said Shanghai Customs.

So far this year, airports in Shanghai have recorded a new daily high of such cross-border e-commerce export declarations, hitting around 2 million declaration forms each day, compared with an average of some 1.2 million forms per day in 2023.

The airports in Shanghai have become an important channel for Chinese goods to go global via cross-border e-commerce, said the customs authorities.

In 2023, the city's airports saw export declarations from three leading Chinese e-commerce platforms, namely Shein, Pinduoduo and TikTok, increased by more than 10 times that of the previous year, according to Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Export declaration from the three aforementioned companies accounted for more than one-third of the total recorded by Shanghai airports, indicating thriving growth in the cross-border e-commerce sector.

In 2023 alone, major cross-border e-commerce logistics companies arranged 580 charter flights via Shanghai airports to facilitate the delivery of their goods. Pudong airport, which undertakes most of the city's air export services, has streamlined relevant procedures to improve customs clearance efficiency for the booming sector.