COVID-19 Impacts Cold Chain Logistics

Cold chains bring together the infrastructure, products, services and technologies that form part of supply chains of products that need to be kept under controlled temperatures. This can take a number of forms, from manufacturers of refrigerated containers to managers of temperature-controlled warehouses and walk-in freezers. Cold chains have played an important role in making COVID-19 conditions livable, not only because of their enormous importance in terms of food supply but also due to their essential role in the pharmaceutical industry. Because of this, cold chain management calls for higher degrees of specialization. 

This would make it seem like cold chains are benefitting steadily from COVID-19, but matters might not be so simple. A digital conference organized by T21 gathered experts on the subject who agreed that companies in this sector were going to have to invest in new technologies to survive. One of the participants was David Gómez, Director of Sales and Industrial Refrigeration at Güntner. Gómez said demand created by COVID-19 had been good for business. However, the pandemic had revealed vulnerabilities in the sector’s capacity in terms of storage and the logistical efficiency of warehouses. Addressing these vulnerabilities will require significant investments that will bring about higher prices for users and clients of these supply chains. 

While cold chains also need the standard investments that other logistic sectors are looking to make (automation, remote monitoring and other similar items in the industry’s ongoing digital transformation), they also need investment in new technologies that can allow for the refrigeration and freezing of larger spaces quicker and through a more efficient consumption of energy. Another participant, Danfoss Technical Support Leader Adrián García, agreed that the cost of using cold chains was inevitably going to increase in the future and that companies who wanted to adapt to that change needed to be smart about making these investments in a localized manner. For example, temperature-controlled warehouses might need more or less investment in their capabilities depending on the general weather conditions of the area that surrounds them.