SHANGHAI, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's express delivery giant S.F. Holding Co., Ltd. reported strong earnings growth in the third quarter of 2020 over solid business growth.

Net profit for the July-September period surged by 51.6 percent year on year to around 1.84 billion yuan (about 274 million U.S. dollars) while revenue grew by about 34 percent to 38.46 billion yuan, the company said in its financial report filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

In the first three quarters of the year, the company earned a net profit of 5.6 billion yuan, up by 29.8 percent year on year, and generated revenue of 109.6 billion yuan, up by 39.1 percent, it said.

S.F. Holding, a leader in the middle and high-end courier service market, benefited from the e-commerce boom during and in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic in China.

In September alone, it handled 728 million shipments for its express logistics service, a year-on-year increase of 60.4 percent, the company said in a separate filing last week.