THE construction of a large salt logistics center costing 400 million yuan was approved by experts recently.

    The project, located in Dongjiakou, will become China’s largest salt logistics center with annual capacity of 10 million tons and production value of 2 billion yuan to supply salt to the three provinces in North China.

    Qingdao’s salt department and the Jiaonan city government signed a contract for the project with China National Salt Industry Corp. in July 2009. Experts believe the project could solve problems in salt distribution in North China.

    The project is another indication of the progress being made by Qingdao since a salt distribution center was built in Laixi. The project would cost 400 million yuan and occupy about 13 hectares.

    The first phase of construction, including equipment for storage, distribution and services, would cost about 80 million yuan, while the second phase would cost about 150 million yuan.

    (Wang Yuanyuan, Zhang Rongbo)