Two officials inspect cargo at the waiting area in Nansha Free Trade Port Area. [Photo/gznsnews.com.cn]

Guangzhou has achieved an import and export volume of 6.51 billion yuan ($917.4 million) through Guangzhou Customs' management platforms for cross-border e-commerce in the first quarter of 2020, the Guangzhou municipal commerce bureau announced on May 9.

The volume increased by 5.6 percent year-on-year, maintaining first place in China.

Guangzhou Customs has been one of the pioneers in China to make full use of the preferential policy for cross-border e-commerce returns, allowing companies to relocate their overseas warehouses to Nansha Free Trade Port Area in Guangzhou for the storage of returned goods.

Guangzhou has dealt with 576,000 returned packages in the first quarter of 2020, expecting to reduce the overall logistics cost for companies by about 50 million yuan per year.

Nansha has contributed greatly to cross-border e-commerce by marine transportation as aviation transportation has been impacted by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Nansha has realized an overall import and export cross-border marine transportation e-commerce volume of 3.84 billion yuan, up 74.4 percent year-on-year.