BEIJING, May 22 -- China's postal industry registered a steady expansion in both business revenue and parcel volume in the first four months of this year, official data showed on Monday.

The sector raked in 473.21 billion yuan (about 67.45 billion U.S. dollars) in business revenue during the period, up 12.1 percent year on year, according to the State Post Bureau.

In April alone, business revenue of the sector totaled 116.99 billion yuan, marking year-on-year growth of 23 percent.

China's express delivery service companies handled 37.1 billion parcels from January to April, a year-on-year increase of 17 percent. Their business revenue jumped 12.2 percent from a year ago to 351.44 billion yuan during the period.

In April, the business revenue of the express service industry increased 24.9 percent from a year ago to stand at 92.49 billion yuan.