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FedEx will raise its shipping rates in 2005 with the cost of its FedEx Express service will rise 2.6% next year. The Memphis, Tennessee-based expedited ar carrier said the increase will include a 4.6% hike in package and freight costs and a 2% decrease in its fuel surcharge. The company said the fuel surcharge cut is the company's attempt "to make the fee be more in line with the current market" and that the surcharge is linked to the price of jet fuel, triggering a hike whenever fuel costs go above the target price. The rates for FedEx ground and home-delivery services will rise 2.9%, as well. FedEx said it will introduce an indexed fuel surcharge for ground service shortly. The company said it will also raise surcharges on certain delivery areas, residential delivery and items valued over $100. The rate hikes will take effect January 3…

The combined value of merchandise entering US foreign-trade zones totaled $245 billion in 2003, a 20% increase over the $204 billion in shipments the previous year, according to an economic impact study just released by the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones (NAFTZ). Sixty-five percent of goods entering zones are from the US. Exports from U.S. foreign-trade zones reached $19.8 billion in 2003 - an increase of 27% over 2002. Employment totaled 338,225 in jobs associated with zone activities - an increase of 6% over the previous year. Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs) were created in the United States to provide special customs procedures to US plants engaged in international trade- related activities. These procedures were aimed to offset customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with domestic industry. According to the NAFTZ, the FTZ program requires that zone activities result in a significant public benefit and a net positive economic effect; and…

UPS has launched the first of 12 new flights to China with MD-11 service to Shanghai. The new flights will triple the current service from six to 18 flights a week and comes on the heels of UPS's impressive 129% growth in China export volume in the third quarter. China is expected to become the world's second largest economy after the US within 11 years and the largest by 2039. The country already is the world's largest market for mobile phones and a key center for the production of textiles, computer chips and other high-tech items. To facilitate that growth, UPS recently launched an additional six weekly flights between Hong Kong and its intra-Asia hub at Clark Field in the Philippines with  "double-daily" flights from Hong Kong, via Singapore to Clark and the rest of Asia. All of Asia's top countries are within a four-hour flight from the company's intra-Asia hub.

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