The total parcel volume for the year exceeds 30 billion! J&T Express's globalization enters a period of harvest.

Ask AI · How does J&T Express quickly dominate in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce wave?

On the day of the global debut of the iPhone 17, a group of consumers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, received their new phones ordered through TikTok Shop. The delivery was not handled by Apple’s own logistics system but by J&T Express.

A smartphone worth several thousand yuan was shipped from warehouse to consumer in just a few hours, thanks to strong order forecasting, sorting dispatch, and last-mile operational capabilities. J&T’s ability to take on this business relies on its network density and service capacity built over ten years in Southeast Asia.

This is just one of the major achievements J&T quietly accomplished by 2025. In the same year, it shipped a total of 30.1 billion packages worldwide.

On March 30, J&T Express (01519.HK) released its full-year 2025 results, with annual revenue of $12.16B, up 18.5% year-over-year, outpacing industry growth. The global parcel volume reached 30.13 billion, surpassing 30 billion for the first time. Adjusted net profit was $430 million, up 112.3% year-over-year, exceeding Bloomberg consensus estimates. Free cash flow was $490 million, up 96.1%. Southeast Asia contributed about 60% of the adjusted EBITDA for the entire group, making it the largest profit source. After three years of operation in new markets, it turned profitable for the first time. While growth in China slowed, costs decreased, and customer structure improved.

This global express service provider, which started in Indonesia in 2015, has taken a path completely different from domestic peers.

Dominating Southeast Asia, turning losses into profits in new markets

In August 2015, J&T was founded in Jakarta, Indonesia.

At that time, the efficiency of Southeast Asia’s express industry was very low. A typical example is during Ramadan, which coincides with Indonesia’s peak e-commerce shopping season, but local logistics companies would collectively take holidays, leaving parcels piled up in warehouses, and consumers had to wait.

J&T made a differentiated service commitment at its launch: during major holidays like Ramadan, Eid, and Christmas, it would continue to provide pickup and delivery services, filling a market gap.

This seemingly bold promise helped J&T quickly establish itself in Indonesia. Over the next four years, it expanded to Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, and Singapore, becoming Southeast Asia’s largest third-party courier.

By 2025, J&T’s data in Southeast Asia shows: total parcel volume of 7.66 billion, up 67.8% year-over-year, the fastest growth in four years. Revenue reached $4.5 billion, up 39.8%. Adjusted EBIT was $538 million, up 77.5%, with profit margins rising to 11.9%.

According to Frost & Sullivan data, J&T’s market share in Southeast Asia reached 34.4%, an increase of 5.8 percentage points year-over-year, ranking first for six consecutive years.

Business volume is rising, and profits are growing even faster.

Why is the Southeast Asian express market growing so rapidly? According to a research report by CICC Securities published in November 2025, the per capita express delivery volume in Southeast Asia still has a 4.9-fold growth potential compared to China. In other words, the current Southeast Asian e-commerce logistics market is roughly at the stage China was around 2015-2017. This market is still on the rise and far from reaching a ceiling.

In this growth wave, TikTok Shop played a key role. In the first half of 2025, TikTok Shop’s GMV in Southeast Asia grew 100% year-over-year, making it the second-largest e-commerce platform in the region. Unlike Shopee and Lazada, TikTok Shop does not have its own logistics system; all express orders generated on the platform are handed over to third-party couriers for delivery.

J&T is TikTok Shop’s largest courier service provider in Southeast Asia. The faster the e-commerce platform develops, the more J&T benefits from the growth.

Here’s an important difference from China’s express industry rules: In China, merchants choose which courier company to ship with. But in Southeast Asia, e-commerce platforms allocate courier orders based on operational efficiency and service quality. The more efficient a courier, the more orders it receives; more orders mean lower costs per parcel; lower costs enable more competitive pricing and more orders. This mechanism naturally favors leading companies already ahead in the industry.

J&T’s secret to maintaining its lead is continuously applying over twenty years of operational experience from China’s express industry to Southeast Asia.

In 2025, J&T’s per-parcel cost in Southeast Asia decreased by 15.8% year-over-year, down to $0.48. In Thailand, J&T deployed Southeast Asia’s first industrial-grade automated sorting equipment, with plans to achieve full last-mile automation across Thailand by 2026.

The cost control, automation upgrades, and refined operations that China’s express industry explored over the past two decades are being re-implemented in Southeast Asia, but at a faster pace because J&T no longer needs to start from zero.

Another major development in overseas markets in 2025 was in new markets.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt — collectively called “new markets” — J&T only started operations there in 2022. By 2025, annual parcel volume in these markets reached 404 million, up 43.6%. Revenue was $870 million, up 51.2%. In Q4 alone, parcel volume exceeded 100 million for the first time, a 79.7% increase year-over-year.

A more critical figure: Adjusted EBIT turned from a loss of $76.47M in the previous year to a profit of $3.78M. In the second half of 2025, adjusted EBIT per parcel in new markets turned positive for the first time, reaching $0.09.

The successful model in Southeast Asia is now being profitable in Latin America and the Middle East. This signals to capital markets that J&T’s growth story is not limited to Southeast Asia alone.

It’s worth noting that in 2025, J&T also made two major moves in new markets.

First, it repurchased minority stakes in Jet Global and JNT Express KSA for up to $1.06B, fully consolidating the operations in these markets, so future profits can be fully reflected in J&T’s financials.

Second, while maintaining close cooperation with global cross-border e-commerce platforms like SHEIN, Temu, TikTok, and AliExpress, J&T also partnered with Latin America’s largest e-commerce platform Mercado Libre, integrating into the region’s biggest commercial gateway and winning the 2025 Best Transporter Award from Mercado Libre.

J&T CFO Zheng Shiqiang stated in the annual report that 2025 was a fruitful year for J&T’s globalization strategy, with new markets turning profitable within just three years, marking an important milestone in its global expansion. The cost per parcel in China hit a record low of $0.28.

Back in China, focusing on refinement

China remains J&T’s largest market, with 22.07 billion parcels shipped annually, accounting for over 70% of the global total. But in 2025, growth in China was only 11.4%, and revenue growth was 5%. This is a pace chosen by J&T itself.

Management repeatedly mentioned in performance communications that, in 2025, China’s key focus shifted from volume pursuit to improving customer structure—reducing low-margin orders, increasing the proportion of brand clients and mid-tier merchants.

For example, top brands like Blue Moon, Yili, Luhua, and Wuliangye have established long-term cooperation with J&T. Blue Moon has awarded J&T service awards for four consecutive years during Double 11.

In Tianmen, Hubei, J&T started working with the local apparel industry belt before it even became sizable. By June 2025, the Tianmen branch’s daily parcel volume reached 200k, up over 30% year-over-year. In Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei, daily shipments hit 150k, with major clients accounting for 80%. In Zhili, Zhejiang, J&T served the children’s clothing industry belt, with peak daily volume surpassing 400k parcels. In Gannan, Jiangxi, J&T’s orange delivery volume increased 150% year-over-year.

These industrial belts’ parcel volumes are not astonishing, but each represents years of J&T’s dedicated support, helping merchants grow from zero.

Another growth driver is scattered orders. In the first half of 2025, scattered and reverse logistics orders averaged 4 million per day, up 60%, accounting for 7% of total business volume.

Why did J&T choose to slow down actively in 2025? This may relate to the ongoing changes in China’s domestic express industry.

In the first half of 2025, the average price per parcel nationwide dropped 7.7% compared to the previous year. By late July 2025, the State Post Bureau held a forum on regulating “involution” in the industry. Subsequently, over ten regions in China began to raise express prices, with increases ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 yuan per parcel.

According to a research report by Zheshang Securities, regions that announced price hikes account for over 80% of the national market share. Guangdong mandated that all collection prices must not be below the cost of 1.4 yuan, and Yiwu in Zhejiang increased prices by 0.2 yuan per parcel.

Industry competition shifted from price wars to service quality. Against this backdrop, J&T’s strategy is to lower costs to expand profit margins, rather than to lower prices to chase volume. In 2025, China’s per-parcel cost decreased by 6.7% year-over-year, down to $0.28. Its industry ranking rose from sixth to fifth.

Parcel volume growth slowed, but investment did not stop. By the end of 2025, J&T’s global automated sorting lines reached 413 sets, up 134 from the previous year, a 48% increase. Its own linehaul vehicles exceeded 8,500, with about 1,880 added during the year.

By late 2025, J&T’s largest self-operated logistics hub—the Guangzhou Greater Bay Area Digital Supply Chain Industrial Park—began operation. Covering 392 acres, with a building area of 320k square meters, it can process over 15 million parcels daily. The park features a double-layer matrix and automated cross-belt sorting system, with a 90% automation rate and 99.98% sorting accuracy. During peak seasons, the system can switch sorting strategies within 10 minutes. The park also includes nearly 50k square meters of cloud warehouses, enabling goods to go from outbound to transfer in just minutes.

In last-mile delivery, J&T has deployed 1,000 unmanned logistics vehicles nationwide. In Dunhuang, three autonomous vehicles handle nearly half of the deliveries at the branch, reducing per-parcel costs by 20% and delivering two hours faster than manual delivery. In Guazhou, four unmanned vehicles process 3,500 parcels daily, covering 35 villages and towns. Across the country, unmanned vehicles have lowered per-parcel costs by over 10%.

Additionally, by 2025, J&T had established 173 cloud warehouses nationwide, with an average of over 1.1 million parcels processed daily.

Automation lines, autonomous vehicles, cloud warehouses—these investments may not immediately boost volume, but they aim to further lower costs per parcel and improve service stability. J&T’s China strategy has shifted from “speed” to “sustainability.”

Capital markets’ evaluation of J&T continues to evolve.

A Citigroup report in January raised its target price from HKD 12 to HKD 15, maintaining its “industry top pick” rating, with valuation multiples increasing from 25x PE to 30x. Everbright Securities initiated coverage with a “Buy” rating, forecasting adjusted net profits of $412 million, $654 million, and $867 million from 2025 to 2027. GF Securities maintained a “Buy” rating, noting Latin America is becoming J&T’s second growth engine.

The reasons these institutions are optimistic about J&T vary but share common themes: over ten years, starting from a single branch in Jakarta, J&T has built a network of 13 countries, 19,300 branches, and 246 transit centers, delivering 30.1 billion packages in 2025, with Southeast Asia’s market share exceeding one-third. Its operations in new markets turned profitable within three years.

J&T Vice President Hou Junyi said, “The over 30 billion packages shipped globally is just a new starting point for J&T.” The implication is that the future is broad; Southeast Asia’s e-commerce is still climbing, with per capita parcel volume still nearly five times that of China.

Having just crossed the breakeven point in new markets, the money spent on buybacks is now being converted into building hubs and last-mile networks. China’s automation investments and customer structure adjustments are gradually translating into lower costs and steadier profits each quarter.

This rabbit, which started in Indonesia, will continue to accelerate its global sprint.