Beijing Top Cold Chain Logistics Co., Ltd.
Beijing, China Site Visit
May 12, 2015
By
Eric Xiang

Key Personnel:
Mr. Han Yuesheng, General Manager

Beijing Top Cold Chain Logistics Co., Ltd. (Top CCL) is a third-party logistics provider (3PL) focused on the cold chain for handling pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals and medical products. It’s a small company with a staff of 50 working in its Beijing headquarters as well as representative offices in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Ji’nan and Langfang.

Top CCL started business in 1997 by creating products used in storing and transporting refrigerated goods. In 2008, Top CCL started providing cold chain services after General Manager, Mr. Han Yuesheng, joined the company.

Top CCL has a warehouse in Beijing which is used for refrigerated storage, packaging and load testing, but not for cargo storage as most of its customers use their own warehouse. The China Food and Drug Administration requires a license for pharmaceutical storage, so it is not easy to run a warehouse to store pharmaceuticals. Usually, for small shipments, Top CCL arranges the packaging and pickup from the customer and ships the goods by air. Transit time is within 72 hours including destination delivery. For large shipments, Top CCL will arrange a refrigerated truckload. Most of the shipments are from manufacturers to sales agents, and some are from manufacturers to hospitals (end users).

The key to providing cold chain services for pharmaceuticals is the cooler box and loading plan. The cooler boxes are produced in-house. The loading plan is very complex. Different weights, temperatures at origin and/or temperatures at destination require different packaging and loading plans. In order to ensure the loading plan is correct, Top CCL has a special cooler box for packaging and load testing. Top CCL will put the goods into this special cooler box using a specified packaging and loading plan. It then simulates the temperature needed for transportation. Once the test has passed with the customer’s direction, Top CCL will ship the goods using that packaging and loading plan. This is the sale point for Top CCL’s service.

Usually, it is easy to maintain temperatures below -18 degrees Celsius as Top CCL has the equipment needed to maintain temperatures below -30 degrees Celsius, or even for dry ice, below -60 degrees Celsius. However, it is not easy to maintain temperature between 2-8 degrees Celsius. Top CCL has a one kind of packaging product to maintain the temperature at 5 degrees Celsius, which is good packaging material for the goods that need to be kept between 2-8 degrees Celsius.

Other than the packaging, loading plan, and cooler box, Top CCL has a supervisor go with the driver to pick up each shipment to ensure the loading is under control. Top CCL has a good reputation and customer base in this market. Its customers include: AkzoNobel, Staidson Biopharmaceuticals, Medtronic, Science Sun, and Yuance Pharmacy.

AkzoNobel is a manufacturer of chemicals. Top CCL operates an 800 square meter warehouse in Langfang, Shandong Province (AkzoNobel has a factory there) providing refrigerated warehousing and delivery from the warehouse to the factory for all of the imported shipments.

Top CCL is a small company for logistics, but it is not too small for the cold chain of pharmaceuticals. Finding a strong sales team to develop the market, should spur growth.