SF Holding 2026上半年业绩报告：AI驱动效率提升，利润增长9.3%

S&P turns red, Nasdaq extends some losses as Warsh delivers Jackson Hole speech
Introduction & Market Context
S.F. Holding Co., Ltd. (SZSE:002352, SEHK:6936) presented its first-half 2026 results on August 28, revealing a strategic pivot toward value-based operations and AI-driven efficiency as China’s logistics giant navigated a challenging environment of flat parcel volumes and elevated fuel costs. The company’s investor presentation highlighted how technology investments and operational optimization enabled profit growth that outpaced revenue gains, even as traditional volume metrics stalled.
The presentation comes as China’s express delivery industry faces moderating growth, with SF Holding’s parcel volume increasing just 0.2% year-over-year to 7.9 billion pieces in the first half. However, the company demonstrated resilience through pricing discipline, product mix improvements, and aggressive deployment of artificial intelligence across its operations.
Financial Performance Highlights
SF Holding reported revenue of RMB 155.5 billion for the first half of 2026, representing 5.9% year-over-year growth. More significantly, the company’s adjusted net profit—excluding non-recurring gains and losses—climbed 9.3% to RMB 5.0 billion, demonstrating improved earnings quality despite external headwinds.
As shown in the following comprehensive earnings overview, the company achieved margin expansion across key metrics while maintaining its commitment to shareholder returns.
Gross profit reached RMB 20.9 billion, up 7.7% year-over-year, with gross margin improving 0.2 percentage points to 13.4%. This margin expansion occurred despite significant oil price volatility in the second quarter that pressured transportation costs across the logistics sector.
The company’s reported profit attributable to owners declined 4.1% to RMB 5.5 billion, but this figure reflects a high comparison base from the first half of 2025 when SF Holding recorded one-time gains from asset transfers. The adjusted profit metric provides a clearer picture of operational performance.
The following waterfall chart illustrates how SF Holding’s profit-lifting initiatives, lean management, and AI applications offset the impact of rising oil prices.
SF Holding increased its interim cash dividend to RMB 2.5 billion and raised the payout ratio to 45% from 40% in the prior year. Combined with RMB 6.0 billion in A-share repurchases and HKD 230 million in H-share buybacks, total shareholder returns for the first half reached RMB 7.2 billion.
Strategic Shift: Volume to Value
The presentation emphasized SF Holding’s deliberate transition from volume-driven growth to value-based operations, a strategic repositioning reflected in the company’s performance metrics. While parcel volume growth decelerated to just 0.2% for the half and actually declined 3.7% in the second quarter, revenue and profitability continued expanding.
"We are focusing on deepening our domestic competitive moat through products and scenarios while accelerating international growth," the presentation stated, outlining two key pillars: "Resilience for the Long-term" and "AI-Driven Innovation."
This strategic framework encompasses expanding into diverse customer scenarios beyond traditional express delivery, penetrating industrial sectors with higher-value services, and leveraging technology to drive both revenue growth and cost reduction.
Segment Performance Deep Dive
The company’s revenue mix continued evolving, with higher-growth segments gaining share. The following breakdown shows how different business lines performed and their contribution to total revenue.
Time-definite express, SF Holding’s largest segment at 40.7% of revenue, posted modest 0.2% growth overall. However, premium time-definite express services grew 5.3%, outpacing China’s 4.7% GDP growth and demonstrating the company’s ability to capture higher-value business.
The presentation highlighted scenario-based expansion in this segment, including concerts (11% revenue growth, serving 780+ events), exhibitions (19% growth, serving 2,000+ events), and customized services for industrial zones, residential areas, and cultural tourism. This diversification strategy extends SF Holding’s reach beyond traditional express delivery into integrated logistics solutions.
Economy express revenue increased 7.5% to RMB 16.3 billion as the company optimized its business mix and stabilized pricing. The two-year compound annual growth rate for parcel volume in this segment reached 15%, outperforming the industry’s 12%, while average selling price improved 6% year-over-year.
Freight delivered robust 12.6% revenue growth to RMB 22.0 billion, driven by deeper penetration in industrial sectors. The segment’s focus on large items weighing over 100 kilograms—which now represent more than 55% of volume—helped drive gross profit per kilogram up 58% year-over-year. Strategic partnerships, including collaboration with Dekun, enabled resource synergies and cost reductions.
The intra-city on-demand delivery business emerged as a profitability highlight, with revenue surging 22.1% to RMB 6.7 billion. Net profit margin improved from 1.3% to 3.0%, while adjusted net profit margin rose from 1.5% to 2.3%. Order volume grew more than 30% year-over-year, with supermarket partnership revenue climbing over 50%.
Supply chain and international logistics—positioned as SF Holding’s "second growth curve"—posted 15.6% revenue growth to RMB 39.6 billion. Excluding the KLN acquisition, organic growth accelerated to 46.6%, driven by international express and cross-border e-commerce logistics (up 60%) and international supply chain services (up 155%).
AI-Driven Innovation
SF Holding’s aggressive deployment of artificial intelligence emerged as a central theme in the presentation, with the company positioning AI as a fundamental driver of operational efficiency and competitive advantage.
The company deployed approximately 15,000 AI agents by mid-2026, up from over 5,000 at year-end 2025. These agents span the entire value chain, from customer acquisition and sales to warehouse management, route planning, and last-mile delivery.
The following diagram illustrates SF Holding’s comprehensive AI agent ecosystem, centered around customer needs and supported by specialized agents for different operational functions.
Management quantified the AI impact, stating that these applications generated over RMB 1.0 billion in incremental revenue during the first half while also driving cost reductions through efficiency gains. The company developed proprietary logistics-specific large language models—Fengzhi LLM and Fengyu LLM—to power these applications.
Two detailed case studies demonstrate the practical application of AI across SF Holding’s operations. Customer and sales agents work together to identify opportunities, grade prospects, and automate follow-up activities, with different tiers of customers receiving appropriate levels of human versus AI interaction.
On the operational side, planning and fulfillment agents collaborate to optimize route planning, resource allocation, and capacity scheduling. These systems achieved 98%+ coverage for network-wide line-haul and short-haul scheduling, with AI dispatch instruction execution rates exceeding 90%. The company reported a 35% reduction in network-wide fleet empty run rates through automated efficiency reviews.
SF Holding’s vision extends beyond AI-assisted work to AI-driven decision-making, with a long-term goal of having AI handle 80% of routine decisions while humans manage exceptions and monitor systems.
International Expansion & Infrastructure
The company’s international network expansion supports its ambition to build a global logistics platform. SF Holding now operates over 2.75 million square meters of overseas warehouses across key regions, supported by 111 all-cargo aircraft (90 self-operated) and more than 7,100 international flights in the first half.
The global footprint includes over 2.2 million square meters of warehousing capacity in Asia-Pacific (excluding China), 360,000 square meters in Europe and the Middle East, and 190,000 square meters in the Americas. The company operates 100 customs clearance service ports and moved over 660,000 TEUs via ocean freight.
The Ezhou Huahu International Airport, operated by SF Holding, serves as the company’s Asia-centric global air cargo hub. In just over two years of operation, the facility handled approximately 1.5 million tons of cargo in 2025, positioning it among global logistics hubs despite its recent establishment. The airport now operates 61 domestic and 25 international routes, with over 15,000 flights in the first half of 2026.
The presentation highlighted how the Ezhou hub enables industrial clustering effects, supporting cold chain and pharmaceutical logistics, high-end intelligent manufacturing, cross-border e-commerce, and aircraft maintenance services. The facility’s international cargo terminal obtained the full suite of IATA special cargo certifications, making it only the second facility nationwide to achieve this distinction.
Operational Efficiency & Smart Equipment
SF Holding’s operational network showcases extensive automation and intelligent equipment deployment, supporting the company’s efficiency gains and competitive positioning.
The company operates nine fully automated "lights-out" warehouses, deploys 3,853 units of automated sorting equipment, and maintains a fleet of over 54,000 new energy vehicles. Unmanned vehicle deployment exceeded 3,200 units, covering applications from open-road connections to closed-campus delivery.
Smart equipment deployment spans the entire logistics chain. In warehousing, the company uses AMR robots for intelligent handling and AI applications for quality inspection, wave planning, replenishment, and inventory sorting, achieving 10-20% reductions in customer inventory costs. Sorting operations employ approximately 2,400 AGVs for intelligent cage stacking and end-to-end handling, driving 7.4% efficiency gains.
Last-mile operations incorporate over 1,400 autopilot trucks, community delivery robots, and automated building delivery systems. Upper-body humanoid robots and robotic arms handle parcel feeding and palletizing. The company also deployed AI assistants for courier support, including AI-powered Q&A, outbound calling, and smart glasses.
These technology investments delivered measurable results: sorting operational efficiency improved 7.4%, cage trolley transfer center efficiency tripled, and AI-enabled operational efficiency increased 6.2%. Smart tools reduced per-capita working hours by 1.5 hours while the company simultaneously enhanced courier welfare through six major benefit programs.
Financial Health & Cost Management
Despite revenue and profit growth, SF Holding faced cost pressures, particularly from transportation expenses. The following detailed analysis shows how different cost categories evolved as a percentage of revenue.
Labor costs increased to RMB 63 billion but declined as a percentage of revenue from 43.0% to 41.6%, reflecting structural optimization through intelligent equipment and precise resource allocation. This reduction occurred even as the company increased compensation for couriers and operations staff.
Transportation costs rose from RMB 47 billion to RMB 52 billion, climbing from 32.6% to 34.4% of revenue. This 1.9 percentage point increase primarily reflected fuel price surges in the second quarter, partially offset by deployment of new-energy vehicles, intelligent network planning, and operating model refinements.
Other operating costs remained flat at RMB 16 billion while declining as a percentage of revenue from 11.4% to 10.7%, demonstrating improved resource management and digital-intelligent capabilities.
The company maintained a healthy capital structure with an asset-liability ratio of 50.1% and interest-bearing debt ratio of 18.8%. Operating cash flow reached RMB 11.2 billion, down 13.6% year-over-year, while capital expenditures increased to RMB 6.1 billion, representing 3.9% of revenue.
Shareholder Returns & Capital Allocation
SF Holding significantly enhanced its shareholder return program, demonstrating confidence in future cash generation. The company completed its first A-share repurchase plan at the maximum RMB 6.0 billion allocation, repurchasing 160 million shares (3.0% of total shares) for cancellation. It also executed HKD 230 million of its inaugural HKD 500 million H-share repurchase program.
The following chart illustrates the company’s progressive dividend policy and total shareholder returns.
The interim dividend of RMB 2.5 billion represents a 45% payout ratio, up from 40% in 2025. Management committed to further increases, targeting 50% for full-year 2027 and no less than 50% for 2028 and beyond. Combined with share repurchases, year-to-date 2026 total shareholder returns reached RMB 7.2 billion, equivalent to 125% of first-half profit attributable to owners.
Outlook & Challenges
The presentation outlined several growth drivers for the remainder of 2026 and beyond. Time-definite express will continue expanding through scenario penetration and service upgrades, including a new same-day delivery product launched August 8 covering over 300 cities with four-hour delivery commitments.
Economy express profitability should improve through continued product and customer mix optimization. Freight growth will focus on industrial large-item shipments, while supply chain and international logistics—the company’s designated second growth curve—will benefit from overseas warehouse expansion, enhanced airport cargo capacity, and compliance capabilities.
Management maintained full-year 2026 capital expenditure guidance at RMB 12 billion, allocated toward site renovation, equipment upgrades, intelligent systems, transportation hardware including aircraft engines and new-energy vehicles, and AI infrastructure.
However, challenges remain. The company faces a difficult third-quarter comparison base, ongoing fuel price volatility, and intensifying competition in China’s logistics market. The 14% decline in operating cash flow and minimal parcel volume growth indicate that the transition from volume to value-based operations continues to present execution challenges.
The presentation acknowledged these headwinds while emphasizing the company’s focus on "resilience for the long-term" through operational excellence, technology deployment, and international expansion. Whether SF Holding can sustain profit growth while navigating industry headwinds will depend on successful execution of its AI strategy, international expansion, and ability to capture higher-value business segments.
Full presentation:
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