Cold Chain Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Transportation, Monitoring Components, Storage), By Packaging, By Equipment, By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

Industry Insights

The global cold chain market size was valued at USD 167.99 billion in 2018 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 15.1% from 2018 to 2025. Growing penetration of connected devices and automation of refrigerated warehouses across the globe is anticipated to spur the growth. Increasing number of organized retail stores in emerging economies is leading to increased demand for cold chain solutions.

Moreover, trade liberalization, government efforts to reduce food waste, and expansion of retail chains by multinational companies are expected to boost demand. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and bilateral free trade agreements such as European Union Free Trade agreement (FTA) and the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have created opportunities for exporters in U.S. and Europe to increase trade of perishable foods in a manner that is free of import duties.

In developing economies, refrigerated storage market is driven by shift from carbohydrate-rich diet to protein-rich foods, owing to rising consumer awareness. Countries such as China are expected to portray a significant CAGR in the forthcoming years due to a consumer-led transition in the economy. With growing technological advancements in warehouses management and refrigerated transportation, the market is likely to witness expansion in developing economies. Furthermore, growing government subsidies have enabled service providers to tap these emerging markets with innovative solutions to overcome complex transportation.

Cold chain services are designed to provide ideal transportation and storage conditions for temperature-sensitive products. Rising demand for perishable products and fast delivery requirements associated with the e-commerce-based food and beverages delivery market have given a significant boost to cold chain operations. This is a stark shift from the earlier trend of consumers buying processed foods that had a longer shelf life.

Rising trend of purchasing perishable products online has led to new opportunities and challenges. These include need for innovative solutions to provide last-mile delivery, automated warehouses to manage inventories and reduce per-item costs, and low-cost and advanced temperature monitoring devices to maintain safety of fresh food products.

Type Insights

Based on type, the cold chain market has been categorized into storage, transportation, and monitoring components. Growth of the storage segment is attributed to increasing preference for packaged food across the globe. Changing dietary patterns and lifestyles of consumers is driving demand for frozen food. This is expected to boost demand for storage solutions in the forthcoming years.

Cold chain systems are crucial for supplying food, beverages, and healthcare products. Demand for high-cube refrigerated trailers, connected refrigerated trucks, insulated containers, and vehicles favoring cross-product transportation is expected to drive the transportation segment over the forecast period.

Use of monitoring components particularly in cold chain is on the rise, attributed to technological advancements and growing need to ensure the integrity, efficiency, and safety of shipments. Advancements are equally noticeable in backend IT infrastructure and frontend devices deployed for collecting and reporting real-time shipment information.

Efficient management of cold storage greatly depends on software and hardware components used for monitoring purposes. Hardware components include data loggers, remote temperature sensors, RFID devices, networking devices, and telematics devices. Stringent regulatory environment in pharmaceutical industry surrounding the maintenance of product quality has positively influenced the adoption of cold chain temperature monitoring solutions.

Packaging Insights

Based on packaging, the market has been bifurcated into product and material. The product segment includes a detailed analysis of crates, insulated containers and boxes, cold packs, labels, and temperature-controlled pallet shippers. The materials segment includes an in-depth analysis of insulating materials and refrigerants. The insulating materials and refrigerants are considered as a complete system for temperature-sensitive products. The insulating materials segment further classified into Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), Vacuum Insulated Panel (VIP), Polyurethane (PUR), cryogenic tanks, and others.

Temperature-Controlled Packaging (TCP) is a majorly used element in the refrigerated storage market. TCP is developed in accordance with various standards to maintain the products at specific temperatures for a particular period time. Active TCP systems include pallet shippers and refrigerated boxes that are operated through power sources such as a lithium battery. On the other hand, passive systems are cost-effective and practical as they rely on insulated packaging along with refrigerants.

At present, Styrofoam and water-based Phase Change Material (PCMs) are preferred by most pharmaceutical companies. Demand for polyurethane is declining, as polyurethane happens to be heavier than Styrofoam and is also not recyclable.

Temperature-sensitive materials used for shipments of non-bulk packaging include Polyurethane (PUR) foam, Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam, cryogenic tanks, insulated pallet shippers, and Vacuum Insulated Panels (VIPs). Three types of commonly used refrigerants are dry ice, gel packs, and PCM.

Key factors to be considered while evaluating temperature-sensitive packaging solutions include system cost, thermal performance, pack-out simplicity, and physical performance. The variable that determines system cost comprises payload maximization, re-usable systems, packaging costs, and trade-off between custom packaging solutions and off-the-shelf solutions.

Application Insights

Based on application, the market has been categorized into fruits and vegetables, fruit pulp and concentrates, dairy products, fish, meat and seafood, processed foods, bakery and confectionary, and pharmaceuticals. The processed food segment is projected to exhibit the highest growth over the forecast period owing to continued innovations in packaging materials. Advancements in packaging materials increase shelf life of foods. This has increased the trading of processed foods over the past few years.

High demand from pharmaceutical segment can be attributed to importance in maintaining efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals. Cold chain in pharmaceutical industry is driven by stringent regulatory norms such as Goods Distribution Practices (GDP) in the European Union (EU). These regulations are a shift witnessed in governments across the world toward standardizing regulations globally for better transportation systems for healthcare-related products.

Improvements in food packaging materials have become essential owing to expansion of trade over the past few years. As per the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 20% to 40% of the total production of fruits and vegetables is wasted due to accidents occurred during storage, processing, and transportation among other such reasons. Thus, the material used for packaging food items plays a major role in enhancing storage life of food products.

Technological developments in processing, packaging, and storage of seafood are anticipated to stimulate growth of the fish, meat, and seafood segment. Moreover, rise in fish production is expected to boost the segment growth.

Changing food habits and increasing levels of disposable income are triggering the demand from bakery and confectionary products. Shippers are collaborating with third-party logistics to cater to this rising demand and to ensure that products are delivered in optimal conditions on a proper schedule.

Equipment Insights

Based on equipment, the market has been categorized into storage equipment and transportation equipment. Storage equipment is further divided into on-grid and off-grid. Storage equipment are crucial in the refrigerated storage industry as they ensure the quality of products and increases their shelf life. The equipment used includes refrigerators, deep freezers, vaccine carriers, and others.

The demand for off-grid storage equipment is attributed to increasing need to prevent food losses post-harvesting and processing in developing countries. According to the FAO, more than 40% food losses occur during post-harvesting and processing, especially in developing countries. This creates the need to establish sustainable and energy-efficient cold chains that can increase food supply in these countries by nearly 15% or about 250 million tons.

Increasing efforts by governments in developing countries to promote off-grid cold chains are expected to stimulate the demand for off-grid solar energy-based storage equipment. For instance, in March 2018, the Global Lighting and Energy Access Partnership’s (LEAP) competition to develop energy efficient cold storage facility has encouraged the adoption of off-grid solar energy-based storage equipment. This facility is aimed at meeting storage requirements for dairy products and fresh fruits and vegetables in Sub-Saharan African countries.

Regional Insights

Based on region, the market has been divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and South America. North America held the highest market share in 2018 and enables more significant growth opportunities for the companies planning to invest for long haul. Increasing penetration of connected devices and a large consumer base are expected to further fuel the regional demand over the forecast period.

Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness significant growth over the projected period owing to increasing government investments in logistics infrastructure development and penetration of warehouses management systems. China is the major regional contributor and is expected to witness considerable growth over the forecast period. Technological advancements in packaging, processing, and storage of seafood products are anticipated to drive the growth.

Rapidly rising demand and development in cold chain infrastructure have made China a top market. Currently, the country is undergoing a rapid transition from a construction-and manufacturing-led economy to a consumer-led economy. Rising innovations in pharmaceutical sector are expected to boost the demand further. Also, regional expansion of biopharmaceuticals is likely to further drive the growth. Transportation and storage of vaccines at a specific or desired temperature is fueling the market growth in China.

Cold Chain Market Share Insights

Some of the key market participants are Americold Logistics LLC (U.S.); Al Rai Logistica K.S.C (Kuwait); Burris Logistics, Inc. (U.S.); Lineage Logistics (U.S.); Agro Merchants Group LLC (Netherlands); Swire Group (U.K.); Berlinger & Co. AG (Switzerland); and Henningsen Cold Chain Company (U.S.).

Cold chain service providers are constantly upgrading their technologies to stay ahead of the competition and to ensure efficiency, integrity, and safety. Vendors have adopted Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and RFID technologies to improve efficiency with a decreased size of shipments. In addition, they are increasing their multi-compartment refrigerated vehicle fleets to provide additional services to customers.

Report Scope

Segments Covered in the Report

This report forecasts revenue growth at the global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends and opportunities in each of the sub-segments from 2014 to 2025. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global cold chain market report on the basis of type, packaging, equipment, application, and region:

• Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Storage

    • Warehouses

    • Reefer Containers

  • Transportation

    • Road

    • Sea

    • Rail

    • Air

  • Monitoring components

    • Hardware

      • Sensors

      • RFID devices

      • Telematics

      • Networking devices

    • Software

      • On-premise

      • Cloud-based

• Packaging Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Product

    • Crates

      • Dairy

      • Pharmaceutical

      • Fishery

      • Horticulture

    • Insulated containers & boxes

      • Type

        • Cold chain bags/vaccine bags

        • Corrugated boxes

        • Others

      • Payload size

        • Large (32 to 66 liters)

        • Medium (21 to 29 liters)

        • Small (10 to 17 liters)

        • X-small (3 to 8 liters)

        • Petite (0.9 to 2.7 liters)

      • Cold packs

      • Labels

      • Temperature-controlled pallet shippers

  • Materials

    • Insulating materials

      • EPS

      • PUR

      • VIP

      • Cryogenic tanks

      • Others (insulating pouches, hard cased thermal boxes, and active thermal systems)

    • Refrigerants

      • Fluorocarbons

      • Inorganics

        • Ammonia

        • CO2

      • Hydrocarbons

• Equipment Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Storage equipment

    • On-grid

      • Walk-in coolers

      • Walk-in freezers

      • Ice-lined refrigerators

      • Deep freezers

    • Off-grid

      • Solar chillers

      • Milk coolers

      • Solar powered cold boxes

      • Others (solar refrigerators and products related to solar panels)

  • Transportation equipment

• Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • Fruits & vegetables

  • Fruit pulp & concentrates

  • Dairy products

    • Milk

    • Butter

    • Cheese

    • Ice cream

  • Fish, meat, and seafood

  • Processed food

  • Pharmaceuticals

    • Vaccines

    • Blood banking

  • Bakery & confectionary

  • Others (ready-to-cook, poultry)

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

  • North America 

    • U.S.

    • Canada

    • Mexico

  • Europe

    • U.K.

    • Germany

    • France

    • Italy

    • Spain

  • Asia Pacific

    • India

    • China

    • Singapore

    • Japan

    • South Korea

  • Middle East

    • UAE

    • Saudi Arabia

    • Israel

  • Africa

    • South Africa

    • Nigeria

    • Egypt

    • Kenya

  • South America

    • Brazil