LOS ANGELES, Sept 19 Reuters FedEx Corp benefited from misfortunes experienced by rivals UPS and Yellow during its latest quarter as the global delivery firm continued slashing costs to match ongoing softness in global ecommerce demand, according to company officials and financial analysts.

Analysts broadly expect Memphisbased FedEx on Wednesday to report higher yearoveryear profit for the fiscal first quarter that ended on Aug. 31. That is because some worried United Parcel Service customers shifted packages to the FedEx network ahead of the Aug. 1 expiration of that rivals39; contract covering about 340,000 United Brotherhood of Teamstersrepresented workers.

UPS executives last month said worried customers shifted 1 million packages per day to other providers, resulting in about 200 million of lost sales. They estimated that roughly a third of that volume landed with rival FedEx.

As one of the largest providers of lessthantruckload shipping, FedEx also was in prime position to benefit from last month39;s demise of Yellow, one of that sector39;s dominant players.

Analysts generally expect the Yellow bankruptcy volume bump to be more durable than the one from the UPS labor talks.

We believe UPS will be aggressive in trying to win back the business, TD Cowen analyst Helane Becker said in a recent note.

Nevertheless, FedEx could retain a portion of that business after requiring new customers defecting from UPS to sign agreements with terms of at least 12 months,…