China's biggest cold-storage facility opened for business in Qingdao over the weekend as the port city aims to become Asia's largest transit hub for refrigerated goods.

The project was built jointly by the Qingdao Port Group and Iceland's Eimskip, a leading provider of transport, refrigerated logistics and cold-storage services.

The new warehouse, which has 60,000 tons of cold-storage capacity, could increase container throughout at Qingdao Port by 500,000 20-foot boxes, according to media reports citing Qingdao Port Group President Chang Dechuan.

The partners are expected to launch another cold-storage facility with the same capacity in the first half of next year.

Qingdao Port is China's largest refrigerated container port. Its refrigerated throughput totals 393,000 containers.

The project is Eimskip's first cold-storage investment in Asia. Under the agreement between the two entities, Qingdao Port Group will lease the cold storage to Eimskip and later sell it to the Reykjavik-based company.

Companies are investing in cold-chain logistics in China to tap the booming export demand for temperature-controlled cargo such as seafood, meat and vegetables. For instance, China's Sinotrans late last year started construction of a 250-million-yuan (US$33.3 million) cold logistics center, which includes a warehouse, loading dock and refrigerated vehicles, in Shanghai.

Qingdao is on the fast track in developing its fish processing industry.

The Qingdao Port reported total freight turnover of more than 200 million tons and container throughput of seven million units in the first nine months of the year.

The port aims to achieve total freight turnover of 260 million tons and container turnover of nine million units this year.

(Shanghai Daily October 8, 2007)