FedEx and UPS Are Expanding in Asia

Slated to open in December 2008, the new cargohandling center at Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport will have 882,000 square feet of floor space and be capable of handling 24,000 packages per hour.

Although the carrier will shut the Subic Bay facility, it maintains a presence in the Philippines in Cebu and Manilla, where it is presently expanding an operations gateway.

Following closely on the news of the FedEx expansion, UPS announced it is developing Chinese domestic express operations that will link 23 major metropolitan areas with next day service. The package delivery company expect to have the operations up and running by September.

UPS has recently opened three new warehouse and distribution centers in China – as Futian, Suzhou and Shanghai. UPS plans to invest $500 million in a Shanghai air hub at Pudong International Airport. Scheduled for completion in 2007, the hub will be able to handle 200,000 tonnes per year.

Asia remains the world’s fastest growing regional air freight market with predictions of 8.5% annual growth through 2022. China to the U.S. air freight is predicted to grow at an average of 9.6% per year for the next 20 years.