(Yicai) May 28 -- A subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines has launched a new company offering cold chain services, with a view to helping domestic drugmakers and other businesses expand overseas.

China Eastern Air Logistics unveiled the new company, with a registered capital of CNY300 million (USD41.4 million), at a ceremony today.

Based in Shanghai Pudong International Airport's comprehensive bonded zone, it will provide supply chain services, entry and exit services, and digital platform operations for cargo that requires temperature control, such as fresh foods and medicines.

China Eastern Air Logistics launched chartered flights for fresh cargo in 2013, and last year the revenue from its cold-chain business reached CNY2.4 billion (USD331.2 million), the Shanghai-based company said.

The new company will expand the operating scope, serving major economic zones worldwide and opening a path for Chinese pharmaceutical and high-end industry products to go overseas, said Guo Lijun, chairman of China Eastern Air Logistics.

Pudong International Airport's bonded zone has a complete biomedicine industry chain, which was worth CNY306 billion (USD42.2 billion) last year, a 7.3 percent increase on 2022 and making up almost one third of the total for Shanghai's biomedicine industry, according to official data.

With the bonded zone's policy advantages for biomedicine, the new cold chain firm will advance import and export projects, including those for tumor cell treatments, high-end testing agents and others, helping Shanghai to build a world-class biomedicine industry cluster, the company said.

Editor: Tom Litting