Seminars, workshops offer export insights

CONCORD — Two upcoming seminars sponsored by the International Trade Resource Center will explore how businesses can become involved with Canada and China, the state’s largest export partners.

Doing Business with Friends: Canada — US Trade is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Dion Center, Rivier University, Nashua. Cost is $25 and will include lunch. It will feature Patrick Binns, consul general of Canada to New England, as well as a panel discussion of local business owners.

Doing Business in China is set for 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Nov. 7, at the Department of Resources and Economic Development, 172 Pembroke Road, Concord. Cost is $75 and includes breakfast and lunch. It will cover market information, negotiating with customers, finding and managing partners and distributors, and risks of intellectual property theft. Dr. James Chan, founder of Asia Marketing Management, will the featured speaker.

The state also is presenting a workshop on export documentation from 9 a.m. to noon, Nov. 6, at DRED.

For more information and to register for the programs, contact Ellie White at 271-8444 or ellie.white@dred.state.nh.us or visit www.ExportNH.org.

Online shoppers boost FedEx holiday shipping

FedEx Corp. said Monday it will hire 20,000 seasonal employees to work on holiday shipping, which is expected to jump 13 percent from last year.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the global shipping giant predicts it will ship 280 million packages. Dec. 10 is expected to be the busiest day of the season with 19 million shipments, up 10 percent compared with last year.

FedEx last month posted yet another quarterly slump in earnings and slashed profit projections for 2012. Its chief executive said trade had slowed to levels not seen during the past two significant economic downturns.

The company said it has been hiring workers throughout the year and therefore does not need to hire more seasonal employees than last year. Many of its new employees are staffing its Ground and SmartPost divisions, which handle a big chunk of online retail traffic.