FiinGroup is pleased to introduce Vietnam Cold Chain Market Report 2024, the fourth issue on Vietnam cold chain market report series. This report presents a broad range of topics, both sector-specific and crosscutting market issues.

What’s New? The cold chain market in Vietnam recorded active participation and expansion of both local and foreign investors, resulting in a 44.8% surge in the designed capacity of cold storage facilities as well as the growing fleet size of cold transportation providers during the period 2020-2023.

The market is primarily fuelled by the cold storage demand of seafood exports, meat imports, domestic distribution (including modern trade retail, food catering, etc.), fruits/vegetables, dairy, and pharmaceuticals. However, the cold chain sector in Vietnam witnessed a gloomy picture due to a plunge in demand from key customer segments. Specifically, the decrease is highly attributed to the significant decrease in seafood exports and declining meat consumption from food catering services with lay-off waves at manufacturing facilities in Vietnam.

This 2024 issue provides the latest information on the current supply-demand situation in the cold chain market in Vietnam, covering industry data & operational information up to Dec. 2023. This report also provides an in-depth analysis of key growth drivers, market outlook for 2024, and supply-demand forecasts until 2028.

Below are the most critical findings in our fourth issue:

1. The cold chain logistics market in Vietnam witnessed robust growth during the last 3 years, reaching US$211.2mn in 2023. In particular, there are 101 commercial cold storage providers with a total designed capacity of over 1.0 million pallets while Vietnam's cold transportation records 31 professionally managed cold truck providers (typically ranging from 0.5-ton trucks to 15-ton trucks) by the end of 2023.
2. Within the real estate market, the cold storage sector emerges as a burgeoning segment, captivating substantial investment from both local and foreign investors. This has ignited a robust expansion, marked by a remarkable 48% increase in the country's cold storage capacity. Both local and foreign investors have been actively participating and expanding in Vietnam's cold chain market. In particular, the total designed capacity of cold storage in Vietnam is projected to reach over 1.7 million pallets by 2028 with 13 new projects during the period 2024-2028.
3. Despite its long-term potential demand, the cold chain market in 2023 experienced a plummet in demand from major customer segments including seafood and frozen meat. In particular, Vietnam’s seafood export value returned to its pre-pandemic level at US$9.0mn in 2023, recording a YoY fall of 18.4%. Moreover, Vietnam’s meat import value recorded a slight YoY decline of 3.9%, reaching US$1.43bn in 2023, which is mainly attributed to declining meat consumption from the food catering industry.
4. Vietnam's cold chain market exhibits significant consolidation among the top 10 players, commanding 46.5% and 70.1% market share in cold storage and cold transportation, respectively. In particular, among the 80 cold storage providers in Vietnam in 2023, Lineage 2Logistics, Transimex, Hung Vuong, AJ Total, and Hanaro TNS were the Top 5 leading cold storage providers. Meanwhile, ABA Cooltrans and Dai Tan remained its leading positions in the cold transportation segment.
5. Cold chain logistics companies recorded a slight drop in profitability ratios in 2022 due to fierce competition with the aggressive participation of new cold storage providers over the last 2 years. The sector average NPM declined from 5.3% in 2021 to 2.2% in 2022. In addition to the fierce competition, this could be explained by an increase in COGS, which was attributable to the rising electric prices and labor costs in 2022.