North America Cold Chain Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Storage, Transportation, Monitoring Components), By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025

Report Overview

The North America cold chain market size was valued at USD 62.37 billion in 2015. Numerous factors, such as technological improvements in processing, packaging, and storage processes of seafood products, are expected to be the key factors driving the North American market. The retail outlook of the U.S. has been changing in a way that food is available across all retail formats such as convenience stores, supermarkets among others.

Strong government regulations have urged the manufacturers to follow stringent practices in their procurement and the service providers to increase investment for obtaining safety certifications. A majority of the companies are focusing on expanding their market size based on the availability of skilled labor, government regulations, and market demand.

U.S. cold chain market, by application, 2014 - 2025 (USD Billion)

Cold chain, a temperature-controlled supply chain, is primarily used by the food and pharmaceutical industries. Developments in cold chains help in retaining the quality of the harvested products and also guarantees a cost-efficient supply of the products. Frozen foods retain their quality and nutritive values for a longer period and restrain bacterial growth & biological degradation.

The cold chain operators focus on upgrading the existing technologies related to their products and services to ensure integrity, efficiency, and safety. The increasing demand for quality food, among customers, and the increased investment of organizations are the primary growth factors driving the North American cold chain market.

North America Cold Chain Market Trends

Understanding consumer behavior, perspectives toward eating habits, societal trends, and consumer food access would aid corporations in developing items that would appeal to customers. Increasing consumer trend towards diet has urged the food manufacturers to keep on track on current trends and adopt new technologies to tap the market.

Growing population has led to the increased consumption of foods and beverages that has increased the demand for the packaging products and solutions. The requirement for packaged food has risen as the organized retail sector in emerging economies has expanded. The search for convenience in food shopping and consumption led to growth of the organized retail. The retailers attained just-in-time replenishment through the invention of bar code, which allowed to store thousands of products with prices displayed. Growing automation is changing the traditional warehouse operations enabling the companies to maximize the throughput. Order accuracy is achieved through automated materials handling (MH) equipment, robotics applications, and high-speed conveyor systems. The automated warehousing systems increase the storage capacity by 400% compared to the traditional forklift operations. Additionally, the automation also helps to use additional space for other activities, such as manufacturing and value-added services. 

Investment in warehouse automation has been increasing over the past years to meet the customer requirements. High capital investment, running costs, and scalability of different picking methods are the key factors that restrains the market players to automate the warehouse. Additionally, advanced automation, software system, and high-tech advances in tracking system and warehousing demands skilled labors. Employee recognition is the major need for the logistics and warehouse sector that can be taken care by training the employees. Lack of skilled labor availability is anticipated to further restrain the market growth over the projected period.

Lack of infrastructure availability and unstable government regulation in emerging economies would cost more for the companies to automate the existing warehouse. Compared to the conventional methods automated warehouse has high return on investment. The need for operators to lift heavy products are eliminated. Therefore, the high amount of initial investment coupled with the need to upgrade to the latest technologies for maintaining and growing the market presence is anticipated to impede the market growth.

Application Insights

Based on applications, the industry is segmented into Fruits and vegetables, dairy, fish, meat and seafood, pharmaceuticals, and processed food. The fish, meat, and seafood segment was the dominant segment (terms of revenue) in 2015. The processed food segment is anticipated to witness a high growth rate, owing to the increasing demand for probiotics in the region.

The dairy segment is anticipated to have considerable growth over the projected period, owing to the increasing demand for packaged dairy products. In October 2014, Americold Logistics, LLC established a new facility, at Heyburn (Idaho), with a capacity of more than 17,000 pallets, to serve the local dairy and agricultural markets.

The monitoring components segment finds increased applications in the pharmaceutical industry, as the components are sensitive to temperature. Pharmaceutical companies are highly regulated and required to comply with federal safety laws. Transportation of healthcare products (by air) demands specific storage facilities, equipment, and harmonized handling procedures to maintain shipment integrity.

The temperature management issues of transportation are addressed by Temperature Control Regulations (TCRs) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). TCRs include the necessary documentation, packaging, and government details for the transportation of healthcare products.

Type Insights

Based on types, the industry is segmented into storage, transportation, and monitoring components. The storage segment dominated (in terms of revenue) and was valued at USD 47.50 billion in 2015. The monitoring components segment is anticipated to witness the highest growth rate over the forecast period.

The storage segment is further bifurcated into the warehouse and refrigerated container. In 2015, the warehouse storage segment generated the largest revenue. The transportation type is further segmented into road, rail, sea, and air. The rail transportation segment is anticipated to portray a high growth rate over the projected period with a CAGR of 11.0%.

The monitoring segment includes hardware components such as sensors RFID, telematics, and networking devices. The sensing devices segment comprises various sensors and modules that detect and gather information from different devices for further analysis.

Sensors are now rapidly shifting from motion and image sensing toward measuring humidity, temperature, and human health, owing to the increase in consumer IoT devices such as wearables.

Regional Insights

The U.S. dominated the regional market (in terms of revenue) in 2015. The key factors driving the U.S. market include stringent government regulatory environment, availability of skilled workforce, availability of infrastructure, and the growing demand for packaged food.

Canada is anticipated to have significant growth over the projected period. The presence of major fishing zones and reduced electricity charges are the key factors driving the Canadian regional market. E-commerce is the rising trend in the U.S. cold chain market and is used for grocery sales, fresh food, and packaged food delivery. The increasing outsourcing of cold warehousing and transportation to third-party service providers is also likely to enhance the e-commerce for perishable consumer packaged goods.

IATA created a global pharmaceutical logistics certification program under their center of excellence of independent validator. The certification program provides training, regarding standards, regulations, compliance, and audit processes, to the stakeholders and identifies the cold chain service providers, who are compliant with certification standards.

Key Companies & Market Share Insights

The key players in the market include Americold Logistics (U.S.), Burris Logistics (U.S.), Lineage Logistics Holding LLC (U.S.), and the United States Cold Storage, Inc. (U.S.). Companies use improved information about consumer behavior, products, and processes for achieving differentiation and transformation in their products.

North America Cold Chain Market Report Scope

Segments Covered in the Report

This report forecasts revenue growth at North America regional & country levels and provides an analysis of the industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2014 to 2025. For this study, Grand View Research has segmented the North America cold chain market based on the type, application, and regions:

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

  • Storage

    • Warehouse

    • Refrigerated container

  • Transportation

    • Road

    • Sea

    • Rail

    • Air

  • Monitoring Components

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

  • Fruits and vegetables

  • Dairy

  • Fish, Meat, and Seafood

  • Processed Food

  • Pharmaceuticals

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

  • North America

    • The U.S.

    • Canada

    • Mexico