Qingdao Haier, the Chinese home appliance and electronics maker, the company will build a new energy-saving refrigerator project via its wholly-owned subsidiary in Hefei.

The project will reportedly have three production lines with an annual capacity of three million refrigerators. It will adopt many advanced technologies to help improve production efficiency and competitiveness in environmental protection.

The costs of the project are estimated at CNY690 million, including CNY36 million for land, CNY440 million for equipment, CNY207 million for infrastructure projects, and CNY7 million for other uses.

According to Qingdao Haier, the current refrigerator market shows an obvious growth trend, but its current capacity cannot meet the demands of the market. Therefore, it decided to increase capacity, optimize production layout, and improve productivity.

Products from the new production lines in Hefei are expected to go to the markets in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian. In addition, Qingdao Haier's new refrigerator base in Chongqing is undergoing construction. The Chongqing manufacturing base, which will have two production lines and an annual capacity of two million refrigerators, will be put into production in August 2010.

So far, Haier's refrigerator business has set up 30 manufacturing bases around the world and its annual worldwide capacity is over 20 million refrigerators.