ZTO eyes building cargo fleet as its overseas business expands

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc, the Chinese delivery service that gets most of its business from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, is considering options such as building its own cargo fleet or purchasing a stake in an existing carrier, as it expands operations overseas.

The Shanghai-based company, whose shares started trading in New York in October, had been debating the need to buy aircraft or charter flights for five years but couldn't justify the cost, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lai Meisong said in an interview on Thursday.

"But we definitely need to do this in the future as we build our international delivery service," Lai said at his office in Shanghai, declining to elaborate. "We are definitely going to have our own airplanes and airplane companies or buy a stake in airlines."