With the positive trend in preventing and controlling the epidemic of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China, various enterprises quickly resume work and production, which has given rise to a sharply increased volume of cross-border e-commerce parcels. However, Due to the further spread of the epidemic abroad, lots of airlines have reduced and suspended their flights, hence the substantial decrease in the international air transportation capacity at Shanghai Port, especially for the route to the United States, Canada and Australia. Shanghai Postal Branch actively explores the new path of replacing air transport with maritime transport. Under the guidance of the Department of International Service of the Parcel, Express and Logistics Business Unit of China Post Group Corporation Limited, it seeks to open the express line of Maersk (China) Line, and make all-out efforts to ensure the smooth flow of the outbound international mail transportation channels at Shanghai Port.

On March 15, Shanghai Postal Branch had its first batch of four fully loaded shipping containers containing a total of about 24 tons of cross-border e-commerce parcels (international ePacket and international small packet items) shipped to Canada. As of March 25, Shanghai Postal Branch has cumulatively shipped 59 large containers and 3 small containers with a total of 27329 bags of mail items to the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries.

It is understood that the maritime transportation mode is one of the effective ways to alleviate the current shortage of air transportation capacity, and is also a new measure to cope with the rise in terminal dues. At present, Shanghai Port has sufficient maritime transportation capacity, and many key routes such as those to the US West, Canada, Australia and Japan can guarantee at least two to five voyages per week, with the advantages of sufficient space, stable timeliness and low cost. Therefore, maritime transportation may serve as an effective supplement to cross-border e-commerce air transportation channel to further enhance the competitiveness of Shanghai Port in cross-border e-commerce market.