How many cold storages are there in Vietnam?

20.12.2021

1. Overview in the "new normal."

The industrial real estate and logistics industry has always been considered a potential market for domestic and foreign investors in recent years. However, the cold storage segment has some unique features, so the cold storage market is relatively scarce in most Asia Pacific regions. Some developed countries like Japan and Australia also have fewer cold storage facilities than a total supply in US or Western European markets.

Factory-scale cold storage service provides freezers and refrigeration equipment to preserve frozen or fresh goods. Most food items will be stored in cold storage. Otherwise, cold storage can also store pharmaceuticals, chemicals, or wine. Tenants can be third parties such as logistics companies, cold storage logistics units, or supermarket chains.

In addition, the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic caused an increase in the demand for cold storage to store vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and medical supplies. The domestic cold storage market is hotter than ever.

2. How many cold storages are there in Vietnam?

Currently, the whole country has 48 cold storage locations with a capacity of about 700,000 pallets and thousands of small-sized cold storage with a total capacity of 2 million tons of products. In 2020, many other cold storages were under construction and awaiting an operation, such as Hung Vuong Warehouse (Thaco) with 60,000 pallets, AJ Total Long Hau with 32,000 pallets, and AJ Total Hung Yen 25,000 pallets. Emergent Cold Vietnam and Preferred Freezer (District 7) have just merged with Lineage Logistics, the world's largest cold supply chain corporation. Lineage now has three warehouses. One warehouse is located in the Song Than 1 IP - Binh Duong, one warehouse in District 7, and one in VSIP Bac Ninh.

3. Kinds of cold storage

The cold storage market is classified in various categories, organized by usage purpose, temperature range, or size scale. Some warehouses could be classified based on the specific design and insulation characteristics.

3.1. By usage purpose:

Preliminary cold storage: to use for pre-cooling or temporarily preserving food at processing plants before moving to another processing stage.
Manufacturing warehouse: to use for food processing and preservation factories (canning factories, dairy factories, seafood factories, meat export factories, etc.). This kind of cold storage usually has a large capacity and large cooling systems. Import and export activities happen frequently.
Distribution or transshipment warehouse: this kind of cold storage is equipped with air conditioners to long-term stock and provide food for residential areas. The capacity is extensive with various items. Distribution or transshipment warehouse plays an essential role in the daily life of communities.
Commercial warehouse: Cold storage to preserve food items of the retail chains like supermarkets. The warehouse is used to preserve the items being sold on the market temporarily.
Transportation warehouse (on ships, trains, cars): The storage characteristics are large capacity, temporary preservation of goods for transportation from one place to another.
Individual warehouse: small-sized storage to be used in households, hotels, and restaurants to store a small number of goods.

3.2. By temperature range

Standard cold storage: Storage temperature ranges from -2 Celcius degrees to 5 Celcius degrees. Some tropical fruits and vegetables need to be stored at a higher temperature (except for bananas, need to be kept at a higher 10 Celcius degrees, for lemons is higher than 4 Celcius degrees). The main items are vegetables and agricultural products stored in this kind of warehouse.
Freeze storage: A warehouse is used to preserve frozen items of animal origin. The storage temperature depends on the time and type of food being stored. However, the minimum storage temperature must also reach -18 Celcius degrees to prevent microorganisms from growing and damaging food during storage.
Multi-purpose warehouse: The storage temperature is -12 Celcius degrees. But the range could be adjusted from -18 Celcius degree to 0 Celcius degrees, depending on technology requirements. The multi-purpose warehouse is usually equipped with fans or ceiling systems for natural air convection.
Ice storage: Minimum required temperature is -4 Celcius degrees.

3.3. By scale:

The cold storage scale depends on its storage capacity. Because the loading capacity for each item is different, the capacity is usually counted based on tons of meat (MT - Meat Tons). For example, 50MT, 100MT, 200MT, 500MT, etc., are warehouses capable of storing 50, 100, 200, 500 tons of meat.

3.4. By insulation features:

Building warehouse: It is a warehouse whose structure is a building architecture and insulation covered inside. This warehouse is built in a large area with a high cost. Also, it is difficult to demolish or move. On the other hand, the construction warehouse is not good in aesthetics and hygiene. Therefore, at present, in our country, we rarely use this kind of cold storage to preserve food.
Panel warehouse: assembled from pre-fabricated polyurethane panels. Panel warehouse has a beautiful overlook and low-cost expense. Moreover, a panel warehouse is easy to install, demolish or remove. It is also conveniently clean and suitable for storing medicines, vaccines, medical supplies, etc. Currently, many companies in Vietnam could manufacture high-standard insulation panels. Therefore, most customers prefer leasing panel warehouses to preserve goods.

To know more about cold storage in Vietnam, you can contact us at hotline 19003133 or email contact@als.com.vn and share your inquiries with us.