The new 134,000-square-meter Fedex international express and cargo hub to be built at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai by 2017 will be capable of handling 36,000 parcels and documents per hour. The new facility’s annual sorting capacity may reach more than 90 million items, meeting demand in the next 20 years. Shanghai aims to be the world’s top air cargo hub by 2015, with a throughput of more than 5 million tons. Major domestic airlines have based 80% of their freight capacities at Pudong airport, which now ranks No 3 by cargo turnover worldwide, after Hong Kong and Memphis in the U.S. Li Derun, President of the Shanghai Airport Authority, said the facility will further raise the airport’s handling capacity and help build it into a global cargo hub. Freight handled by DHL, FedEx and UPS accounts for 10% of Pudong airport’s total cargo volume while the value makes up more than 40% of the total, Li said. A slower global economic recovery saw a 6% fall in cargo handled at Shanghai’s two airports in the first nine months of this year.