national level CIP · Geermu, Qinghai

Qinghai Salt Lake Industrial Park (Geermu, Qaidam basin)

青海盐湖工业园（格尔木柴达木盆地）

Know what the park makes, who runs the lines, and how the cargo gets to the port.

Qinghai Salt Lake Industrial Park (Geermu, on the Qaidam Basin) is the world's largest single-region salt-lake-brine chemistry cluster, leveraging the Qaidam Basin's massive subsurface and surface brine deposits. The Qaidam Basin contains roughly 80% of Chinese potash reserves (the rest are at Xinjiang Lop Nur), plus economically significant lithium, magnesium, sodium, boron, and bromine concentrations in the brine. Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Group anchors the park with potash production (potassium chloride, HS 310420) for Chinese fertiliser demand, supplemented by lithium carbonate (HS 283691) production from brine via the alternative-to-spodumene route. The lithium-from-brine chemistry has gained strategic importance since 2020 with the EV battery boom: brine-route lithium has lower carbon footprint than spodumene-conversion lithium, and the Qaidam brine reserves are large enough to support a meaningful share of Chinese EV battery demand. Two operator-distinct points. First, the Qaidam climate is harsh: winter temperatures regularly below minus 30 °C, summer peak above 40 °C, and the high-altitude (2,800 m) basin requires special handling for personnel and process equipment. Second, the park is structurally landlocked (3,000 km from Lianyungang Port) but connected via the Qinghai-Tibet rail corridor and the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Belt-and-Road rail bridge for outbound exports.