Top executives from China's leading mail companies gather in Tonglu county in Hangzhou on May 6 to unveil the China Centralized Trade and Procurement Center for Logistics Equipment and Materials. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Top executives from China's leading mail companies gathered in Tonglu county in Hangzhou, the capital of East China's Zhejiang province, May 6 to unveil the China Centralized Trade and Procurement Center for Logistics Equipment and Materials.

According to workers at the Tonglu Private Express Development Center, the platform is the first of its kind in China. It helps to build a bridge between mail companies and suppliers of equipment and materials to exchange information and negotiate trade.

During the unveiling ceremony, an online trade system, Fast Procurement Cloud, was launched. Buyers and suppliers can log into the system to receive services and search for products they need.

"To some extent, the system resembles Taobao, an e-commerce platform of Alibaba," a worker said, "You can buy all the equipment in the mail industry such as logistics vehicles, equipment for automatic sorting, computing systems and barcode scanners.”

In addition to the online procurement platform, an offline channel was also opened to facilitate trade.

On the afternoon of May 6, Chinese delivery leaders SF Express, STO, YTO, ZTO and Yunda signed deals with the procurement center, agreeing to gradually turn their procurement of vehicles, equipment, clothing and office supplies to the procurement center.

The five mail companies pledged to procure 11.5 billion yuan ($1.62 billion) worth of supplies in 2020. By May 6, around 100 companies had agreed to join the center.

There is an increasingly stronger call for a special procurement platform for supplies in the mail industry in the context of the booming delivery market in China.

According to annual reports released by the five delivery companies in 2018, the total procurement volume of their delivery supplies reached more than 150 billion yuan.

Mail companies have been calling for a dedicated procurement center as they face high costs in the delivery industry.

Tonglu county is known as the birthplace of Chinese private express delivery companies. The China's four delivery giants – STO, YTO, ZTO and Yunda – were all founded in the county.

Workers work at the China Centralized Trade and Procurement Center for Logistics Equipment and Materials in Tonglu county, Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, on May 6. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]