Global Cold Storage Capacity Report for 2014 shows that India surpassed USA

Global Cold Storage Capacity Report reveals that India has now a bigger total cold storage capacity, with 131 million cubic meters of space, compared to 115 million in the USA. China is now the third largest with 76 million cubic meters of space.

The International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW), a Core Partner of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) revealed the report.

The report shows that the total capacity of refrigerated warehouses was estimated at 552 million cubic meters worldwide in 2014, an increase of 92 million cubic meters (20 per cent) over 2012.

“It’s really interesting to see India surpass the United States in total cold storage capacity with 131 million cubic meters of space, compared to 115 million cubic members for the United States,” stated Corey Rosenbusch, President & CEO, GCCA.

“And as shown in the 2014 report, China is now the third largest with 76 million cubic meters of space.”

The 42-page report includes analyses on growth trends in global capacity, market development indicators, and characteristics of refrigerated warehouses around the world.

The report features cold storage market data on 58 countries. During the last two years, approximately 17 million cubic meters of additional refrigerated warehouse capacity has been added to the IARW database from eight additional countries and nine more international cold storage companies which are now contributing data.

New countries covered in the 2014 report include Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Dominican Republic, and Oman.

Cold storage capacity has shown a growth rate above 5 per cent per year during a sustained period of time in 17 countries. The long-term growth rates are highest in India, China, and Turkey.

Capacity in 13 countries grew faster than 10 per cent annually since the financial crisis of 2008. Countries leading the growth rates since 2008 are Turkey, India, Peru, and China.

The market share of modern retail sales is 50 per cent or greater in most of the large emerging markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and Turkey) and is growing approximately 10-12 per cent per year. Those markets also have the most rapid expansion in refrigerated warehouse capacity.