ADB offers loan to China's logistics industry

TIANJIN -- The Asian Development Bank announced on Monday it will loan $24 million to a Chinese logistics company, its first involvement in China's logistics sector.

The receiver of the loan, Tianjin Binhai Teda Logistics, will use the funding for a cold-chain logistics project in Tianjin, a port city in North China, according to the announcement.

With a total investment of 600 million yuan ($95 million), the main business of the cold-chain logistics center, located in the Tianjin port area, includes refrigerated storage, a domestic shipping and container yard services.

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After completion in 2014, the center, where frozen product imports are inspected and quarantined, will be able to handle an annual turnover of about 700,000 metric tons of goods.

The loan is expected to help improve facilities at the Tianjin port to shorten inspection and quarantine procedures and facilitate declaration, which will eventually reduce logistic costs, according to Robert Wihtol, director general of ADB's East Asia Department.

The project will also help build a traceable food safety management system at the port, said Wihtol.

He hopes that an example can be set for local businesses to seek international financing platforms.

Lack of inspection and quarantine facilities for frozen products has long been a problem hampering declaration efficiency and thus affecting imports of meat and aquatic products via Tianjin, a major logistics gateway in North China.

North China is a major consumer of meat and aquatic products. Tianjin reported 447,700 tons of meat imports, the country's largest, and 79,000 tons of aquatic product imports in 2011.