UPS and FedEx Contribute to U.S. Warehouse Boom

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Thanks to the growth of e-commerce in the global marketplace, warehouse space is quickly becoming a factor in the ability of the companies involved to function profitably. The big player in the room, Amazon.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:AMZN) (Seattle, Washington), has been taking steps to secure its place in the market by building more fulfillment and sorting centers in order to speed delivery times and better serve customers. This is only one step in the process, since at the moment, Amazon does not have a large delivery mechanism, so there is still a great need for delivery companies to provide the actual "last mile" of service.

The explosion of e-commerce has two of the big players in the package delivery industry, United Parcel Service Incorporated (NYSE:UPS) (UPS) (Atlanta, Georgia) and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) (Memphis, Tennessee) expanding their distribution capabilities to meet the demand for faster delivery. Since the start of 2017, UPS has begun work on at least six package-distribution centers across the country, with new facilities being brought online in Louisville, Kentucky; Plainfield, Indiana; Goodyear, Arizona; and Salt Lake City, Utah. UPS has also begun work on expanding existing facilities in Arlington, Texas, and Lenexa, Kansas. These projects represent an investment of $931 million for this year, not to mention several other projects started prior to 2017 that are still in various stages of construction.

FedEx also has started work on two new projects this year: an expansion of its Fort Myers, Florida, facility and a new center for Texarkana, Arkansas, totaling $65 million. While this might seem small compared to UPS' project activity for this year, FedEx has 25 projects it started before 2017 that are still active and have an investment value of about $1.52 billion.

Thanks to the online consumers, all of the companies involved in the shipment and delivery of e-commerce goods will find themselves needing more warehouse and distribution space. More centers will need to be built as the current space is snapped up and put to use by those companies trying to keep pace with the demand. Even with the work Amazon is doing to better control its delivery experience, UPS and FedEx are also taking major steps to improve their own viability in the delivery industry.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com.