The total volume of postal services reached 163.9 million items at the end of the 1st quarter of 2020, 8.8% less than in the same quarter of the previous year. The reduction was influenced by the 9.6% decline of the volume of letters, the 8.3% reduction of editorial mail, and the 15.4% fall of addressed advertising. The volume of parcels increased by 8.2% during the period under review, with this trend of growth of parcels having started in 2018.
The revenues generated by the provision of postal services amounted to around 152.9 million euros, 3.3% less than in the 1st quarter of 2019, due to the decline in letter revenues (-6.4%), editorial mail (-8.1%) and addressed advertising (-13.4%), countered only by the positive performance of parcel revenues (+4.9%).
The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic was felt in the postal services, with the state of emergency having initially triggered a sharp downturn in the volume of parcels (around 20% in the week in which it was declared) and subsequently a sharp upturn (since the week in which the state of emergency was declared parcels have progressively recovered, except for the week of Easter – which had one less business day –, growing on average by 7%/week).
Of the total items delivered in the 1st quarter, 95.9% were destined for the domestic market, while the remaining 4.1% were destined for other countries. The weight of national and international in total volume has remained constant over the years. Letters accounted for 78.5% of postal volume, while editorial mail and direct mail accounted for 7.2% and 6.8% respectively. The weight of parcels in total volume reached 7.5%, corresponding to 1.2 points more than in the same period of the previous year.
Considering the scope of the services, around 79.7% of the volume and 59.4% of revenues corresponded to postal services included in the universal service (US). The weight of the universal service in total volume has fallen by 2.2 percentage points since the 1st quarter of 2019.
In terms of share of the providers, the CTT Group had a share of around 87.5% of total postal volume at the end of March, 2.2 percentage points less than in the same period of the previous year. Premium Green Mail had a share of 5.3%, which reflect an increase of 1.4 points; and the Geopost Group/DPD Group increased its share by one point, to 2.1%.
Concerning the volume covered by the scope of the universal service, the CTT Group held a share of approximately 97.1%.
In the 1st quarter of 2020, the number of access points to the postal network and vehicles increased by 1.6% and 1.7%, respectively; and the number of distribution centres declined by 1.2%.
The evolution of the number of access points was marked by the 3.9% decrease of CTT access points and by a very significant increase, almost 60%, of the number of access points of other providers, due to the start-up of a new network for parcel collection and delivery of a provider.
It is noted in particular that regarding the CTT access points, the number of post offices increased by 0.7% in relation to the same quarter of the previous year and the number of postal agencies decreased by 1.0%1. In terms of the other material resources (belonging entirely to the concessionaire of the universal service), there was a slight year-on-year increase in the number of post office boxes, while the number of letterboxes and outlets where only stamps can be purchased declined by 0.2% and 6.3%, respectively.
1 The number of CTT post offices and postal agencies relative to the 1st quarter of 2020 refer to 12 March 2020.
Consult the statistical report:
- Postal services - 1st quarter 2020 https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1540242
