FedEx opens long-delayed Shanghai Pudong facility to streamline customs

FedEx has finally opened its US$100 million, 134,000-square-meter Shanghai Pudong International Airport hub. Originally slated to open in early 2017, the Shanghai Hub is now the largest of its kind at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, featuring FedEx’s most advanced sortation technology and temperature-controlled storage, ranging from -22°C to 25°C.

When FedEx first unveiled the plans in 2012, it said the new hub would more than triple the capacity of the (now former) FedEx facility in Shanghai, allowing it to process up to 36,000 documents and parcels per hour.

Chinese consumers are “going to demand goods from the U.S. and Europe and parts all over the world,” David Cunningham Jr., chief executive officer of FedEx Express told Bloomberg. With dedicated areas for China Customs and China Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine (CIQ), the facility was built to simplify these operations and speed up the customs clearance process.

FedEx currently has 66 weekly flights into and out of the airport.

Cunningham said that Shanghai is a key node within FedEx’s global cargo network, with “more trans-shipments expected to flow into Shanghai in the future before being moved to other markets.”

China’s demand for cross-border e-commerce has exploded over the last decade, prompting carriers across all modes to reorient their operations towards Chinese consumer markets – a departure from the days when China was mostly an exporter.

China’s air cargo volumes are on track to increase by 6.2 percent in 2018, after climbing 6.6 percent in 2017, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.