FedEx Expands Forwarding Locations

FedEx’s freight forwarding division said Thursday it is adding seven offices in Asia and Europe as part of what the company calls “an aggressive global expansion” of its forwarding operations.

The expansion, including four new stations in China, gives the FedEx Trade Networks division 14 new locations this year, bolstering a forwarding business that has lagged far behind the growth at FedEx’s competitors and in the larger asset-based businesses at FedEx.

FedEx said four of the sites will be company-owned facilities in China, in the cities of Xiamen, Tianjin, Dalian and Ningbo. The FedEx Trade Networks unit will add a representative office in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City and will open stations in Paris and Amsterdam.

FedEx includes its forwarding business in a FedEx Services division that includes FedEx Kinko’s and provides less than 6 percent of the company’s overall revenue. But FedEx also has been pulling back some of its own aircraft capacity and transportation industry observers say the company is bolstering its forwarding capabilities as FedEx and shippers look to cut costs and make greater use of logistics and common carriage shipping.

“Global shippers want flexible and reliable international freight forwarding, and our increased infrastructure can better support their needs between Europe, Asia and North America, as well as intra-regionally,” Fred Schardt, president and CEO of FedEx Trade Networks, said in a statement.