FedEx Corp. plans to add another weekly flight to China in April, boosting the number of such flights to 11, in response to a 30 percent increase in market share over the last year.
The company now services 190 cities in China and flies cargo into three major hubs — Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
“We plan to expand our services in China beginning with larger facilities in Shanghai and Shenzhen,” said Trish Harwood, spokeswoman for FedEx's foreign operations at the company's headquarters. “Our business in China is excellent. We have a growing customer base and expect it will grow even more after China joins the World Trade Organization later this year.”
Air freight, she said, is expected to grow worldwide by 6.5 percent through 2017 with Asian growth at 8.2 percent. “China's growth is expected to be even stronger than the Asian average,” Harwood said.
Over the next five years FedEx, Memphis, TN, expects to expand service to another 100 Chinese cities. While most of the company's customers are multinationals with business in China, it also services a growing number of Chinese firms.
“With China emerging as a rapidly growing economy, more and more of its high-tech and high value-added goods are entering global competition,” the China Daily said last month.
Chinese goods destined for the United States are flown into the Memphis hub and distributed from there, while products going to Europe and the Middle East are handled in the company's hub at Subic Bay in the Philippines.
