In the first quarter of 2010, total traffic from postal services was reported to have grown by around 3.5% over the previous quarter to 305 million objects. In comparison to the 1st quarter of 2009, total postal traffic fell by 3.4%, due in large part to a decline in the number of postal items comprised by the reserved area.
Of the total number of objects distributed during the quarter, around 97% were destined for the national market, while the remaining 3% were destined for the international market.
By type of object, around 98% of postal traffic is comprised by correspondence (which includes addressed publicity and editorial mail), increasing by 3.6% in the quarter and decreasing 3.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile parcels, running counter to the declining trend in year-on-year terms, grew by more than 5% and representing just 2% of total traffic.
Traffic of the liberalised area, comprising 61.5 million objects, represents around 20% of the total. As is usual in the first quarter of each year, postal traffic operated in competition fell, declining by 5% over the fourth quarter of 2009. Likewise, the downward trend in this type of traffic continues, with a 7% fall in year-on-year terms.
During the quarter being reported, the volume of national postal traffic fell by 5.5% to around 56.9 million objects. Outgoing international traffic again comprised 4.7 million objects.
National traffic made up 92% of total postal traffic operated in competition, with outgoing international traffic representing 8%.
In the liberalised area, Grupo CTT was responsible for around 89% of national traffic, one percentage point less than in the previous quarter and for around 82% of outgoing international traffic.
In this period, 6.2 million of the total 61.5 million liberalised postal objects fell within the express mail category, with around 55.3 million being encompassed by the remaining service categories. Express mail therefore accounted for around 10% of total traffic operated in competition, with the remaining categories making up 90% of total liberalised traffic.
In general, the change in liberalised traffic by service followed the trends described above: seasonal decline in traffic compared to the previous quarter - which included the Christmas and New Year period -, and a decline in traffic in comparison to the same period of the previous year, in line with the trend reported over recent years. The exception to this is express mail, which grew by 8.6% year-on-year.
During the quarter being reported, Grupo CTT retained a share of 38% of express mail traffic and 94.4% of non-express mail traffic.
See also:
- Postal Services - 1st quarter 2010 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1031101
