A contract has been signed between the pair and the agreement means that Sinotrans will provide services to Chinese teams at major sporting events such as London 2012 and Sochi 2014.

COC marketing department director Ma Jilong said that logistics was a vital part of support for Chinese sports teams and he said that the partnership would "provide strong support for Chinese athletes so that they can pay full attention to training and competition."

Sinotrans has provided logistics from the 1990 Beijing Asian Games through to the Olympics in the same city in 2008.

It is the biggest logistics company in the country and does business worldwide, with harbours possessing a total handling capacity of 40 million tons.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]