The world's largest package-delivery service, United Parcel Service Inc, is looking to China's burgeoning logistics market to drive growth for its earnings as the company's home market in the US stagnates, a company official says.
"Our plan in China is really aggressive," said Daniel Chen (陳學淳), managing director for strategic planning and development for UPS in China.
"We are ahead of many players here in the field in terms of expanding and building up infrastructure," Chen said, noting the Atlanta-based firm has committed over US$600 million in the past three months for investment in China.
Of the total capital expenditure earmarked for China, about US$500 million will be used to expand infrastructure by building 20 new warehouse and distribution facilities over the next two years. This will bring the total number of such centers to 60 by the end of next year, Chen said on Friday.
UPS also plans to invest US$100 million in expanding a joint-venture express delivery company with Sinotrans Group, one of China's biggest express parcel operators.
When the deal is concluded, UPS will own the company, making it the first foreign company to have a wholly owned operation in the express parcel business in China once Beijing has relaxed ownership rules in the sector at the end of the year under the WTO.
Once that happens, Chen said, UPS will have wholly owned operations in 23 locations in China covering 200 cities.
UPS' expansion in China follows a banner year for the company's China operations last year, when its export volume in the market doubled, reflecting the country's surging economy.
Chen expects business volume from China to grow at a faster rate this year than in previous years.
"We grew 100 percent last year while growth in the year before was between 50 percent and 60 percent," Chen said.
"So if you take that trend and project it onto this year, the growth could be as high as 200 percent," he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last