10.09.2009
ANCOM published today the Report on the 2008 Romanian Postal Market. The statistical data, collected from the postal service providers, reveal that the 2008 postal traffic registered 687,525,363 postal items, slightly (by 2.2%) less than in 2007. Nevertheless, the revenues from postal services increased by approximately 55% compared to 2007, reaching 1,636,637,353 RON.
95% of the postal items the Romanians sent and received in 2008 were items of correspondence, invoices and receipts, newspapers, magazines, advertising materials, registered items and small parcels (up to 2 kg). The ANCOM report indicates that the postal traffic focused on letterpost items, a category which includes the above-mentioned, amounting to 94.76% of the total postal traffic, outstripping the 2007 percentage (93.90%). The total number items of the letterpost category was 651,488,8702,008.
As regards the parcel traffic, 17,232,972 postal parcels were cleared and delivered during 2008, i.e. 3.24% of the total postal traffic. Out of these, 15,883,374 were domestic parcels (92.17% of the total parcel traffic) and 1,349,598 were cross-border parcels (7.83% of the total parcel traffic).
The postal traffic corresponding to Express services reached, in 2008, 2.74% of the total postal traffic (18,803,521 Express items). The statistical data corresponding to Express postal services show that the designated Universal Service provider (CN Romanian Post S.A.) processed a volume of 7,002,867 items (37.24% of the total volume), the rest of the providers having processed 11,800,654 items (62.76% of the total traffic of Express services).
The analysis of the data in the ANCOM Report indicates a slightly downward trend of the postal service market as regards the domestic and cross-border traffic volume, which is due to the users’ uptake of modern communications means, such as the Internet. Thus, the Romanian users come in line with the international trend of replacing the traditional means of communication with the new technologies.
The data under the Report thus show that, in 2008, the internal postal traffic amounted to 669,784,973 processed postal items (i.e. 97.42% of the total postal traffic – 687,525,363 postal items), maintaining an approximately constant value, however in slight decrease (by 2.1%) compared to 2007 (when 684,175,553 internal postal items were processed).
The international postal items held, in 2008, only 2.58% share within the total postal traffic (i.e. 17,740,390 were international postal items). According to the ANCOM Report, the international traffic dropped in the last three years, from 21,271,732 postal items processed in 2006 to 18,806,154 in 2007 (almost 12% decrease) and 17,740,390 in 2008 (almost 6% decrease).
In 2008, the postal service market continued its upward trend as far as the authorised providers are concerned. Thus, the number of postal service providers rose from 248 at end-2007 to 789 at end-2008. 711 of these declared they were active in 2008.
As regards the manpower in this market, in 2008, in Romania, the postal sector counted 47,470 employees, of which 35,892 worked for CNPR (i.e. 75.61% of the total personnel employed in the postal service sector). By comparison, in 2007 there were 44,697 employees, 35,801 of which worked for CNPR.
In 2008, there were 9,086 access and contact points available in Romania, i.e. 3.81 postal sub-units/100 Km2. It is worth noticing that the number of access and contact points of the authorised providers, other than CNPR, grew by 222.63% in 2008 compared to the previous year (from 676 access/contact points in 2007 to 2,181 in 2008). On average, one postal unit covered 2,366 inhabitants, compared to the 2007 index of 2,840 inhabitants/postal unit and the 2006 index of 2,850 inhabitants/postal unit.
According to data made available by the postal service providers, the revenues of the Romanian postal service market amounted in 2008 to RON 1,636,637,353, increasing by almost 55% compared to 2007, i.e. RON 1,056,188,674.50.