Beer gets a big boost in Qingdao

Chinese beer brewing giant Tsingtao began expanding one of its mega factories on Tuesday in Qingdao, Shandong province. The new brewery will be the largest in Asia, with an annual production capacity of 1 million kiloliters. It is expected to be completed by the end of June.

The brewery is located in Pingdu in northern Qingdao, where it will anchor a smart industrial park.

"The park will coordinate upstream and downstream industries, including facilities such as a smart logistics center, customized production platforms, a package-printing factory and yeast processing plants," said Liu Deli, director of the Pingdu plant.

All parts of the beer brewing process — grain malting, brewing, bottling and canning, packaging design, production, logistics and yeast deep processing — will all be handled within the industrial park in the near future.

"The factory will handle direct orders online, offering both mass production and customized production according to customer requirements," Liu added.

On Tuesday Tsingtao also kicked off two other projects — an automated, intelligent production line and a craft beer tourist destination, with a total investment of 1 billion yuan ($144 million).

"Tsingtao will continue deepening the integration of advanced manufacturing technologies and the modern service sector to accelerate its pluralistic development," said Huang Kexing, chairman of Tsingtao Brewery Co.