(Yicai Global) April 24 -- China's express delivery firms managed to balance their business in the first quarter as demand bounced back last month, according to the national postal service regulator.

Business may have been slow in January but orders picked up in March when the daily volume climbed to nearly 200 million packages, according to data that the State Post Bureau released today.

Some 12.5 billion parcels were delivered over the quarter, a 3 percent increase from a year ago. But revenues declined by 0.5 percent to CNY153.4 billion (USD21.7 billion). The pace of growth slowed as volume and revenues had increased by more than 20 percent in the first quarter of 2019 from a year earlier.

But international demand increased. Revenues from overseas deliveries widened by 7 percent as the volume climbed by 10 percent in the three months from a year ago. Logistics companies tried to overcome international flight halts by adding new charter routes or using the China-Europe Railway Express to send goods.

Editor: Emmi Laine