Six companies, including Carrefour, Huayi Brothers, Shanghai Huge Group and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, have signed strategic co-operation agreements to set up businesses in Huangpo, a peripheral city of Wuhan in Hubei province.

Carrefour told local media that Huangpo enjoyed a good location and the move conformed with corporate strategy to develop China’s outer suburban markets. This will be the first time that the French retailer has opened an outer suburban outlet in China.

Covering an area of 16,000 sq metres, the new Carrefour Huangpo store is expected to open next year.

In a separate development, DHL Supply Chain has opened a 3,000 sq metre domestic transport hub in Wuhan ETDZ. Last month, TNT launched a road distribution hub in Wuhan, while Fedex Express has upgraded its customer service centre there.