BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua)-- FedEx Express announced on Monday the introduction of three new flights into China later this month.

    This will provide the company with a total of 26 weekly flights to China, the most of any U.S.-based cargo carrier, said sources with FedEx Express.

    To share accommodate China's surging demand for international cargo transport, FedEx Express has accelerated steps to expand its business in China.

    On January 24, 2006, FedEx Express entered into an agreement with Tianjin Datian W. Group Co., Ltd. ("DTW Group") to acquire DTW Group's fifty percent share of the FedEx-DTW International Priority express joint venture and DTW Group's domestic express network in China for approximately 400 million U.S. dollars in cash.

    This acquisition will convert the company's joint venture with DTW Group, formed in 1999, into a wholly owned subsidiary and help FedEx Express expand international and domestic express businesses in China, said sources with the FedEx Express.

    The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of the financial year of 2007 when FedEx Express' employees in China will exceed 6,000.

    Conducting business in China since 1984, FedEx Express has expanded its service to more than 200 Chinese cities. And the company is expected to expand its service network to another 100 Chinese cities in the next five years.

    FedEx Express also plans to move its Asia-Pacific regional center to South China's Guangzhou city. Sources said FedEx Express has invested 150 million U.S. dollars and started the construction of a new regional center in Guangzhou this January.

    Industry insiders said FedEx Express' new move in China indicates that China's logistics market is more important to overseas investors.

    According to China's promise to the World Trade Organization, China fully opened its logistics market to overseas investors in December 2005. Sources forecast that China's logistics market is expanding at an annual growth rate of 30 percent. Enditem