Recently, YIou and ATOMIX jointly released the *White Paper on Automation of Food Cold Chain Warehousing: The -18°C Efficiency Revolution*, which systematically sorts out the operational challenges and technical routes of food cold chain warehousing in China. The white paper, together with industry public data, points to a trend: while the scale of cold storage infrastructure continues to expand, the focus of industry competition is shifting from "building more" to "using economically and managing efficiently."

Sustained Scale Expansion, 3.2-fold Growth in a Decade. According to the white paper, as of the first half of 2025, China’s total cold storage capacity has reached 267 million cubic meters, a 3.2-fold increase over the past decade. Industry analysis indicates that the continuous development of chain catering, food processing, supermarket retail, and fresh e-commerce has driven the demand for cold storage construction to extend from first-tier cities to regional central cities and production origins, pushing cold chain infrastructure into a period of high-level expansion.

Prominent Efficiency Gap, Automation Rate Only Around 19.7%. Compared with the continuously expanding scale, China’s cold chain warehousing still has significant room for improvement in automation. Data shows that the proportion of automated high-bay warehouses in China is about 19.7%, while mature markets such as Japan and the U.S. have exceeded 60%. The white paper points out that cold chain warehousing faces three constraints: manpower, space, and cost. In low-temperature environments of -18°C and below, the difficulty of recruiting personnel is 3 to 5 times that of normal-temperature warehouses, and labor costs are 30% to 50% higher; the space utilization rate of traditional flat warehouses or beam-type racks is less than 40%. In addition, cold chain business has obvious seasonal fluctuations, with throughput pressure in peak seasons and equipment and labor costs becoming a burden in off-peak seasons. Relying solely on expanding storage area or increasing labor input can no longer meet the demands of efficiency and cost control. Optimizing warehouse layout, equipment configuration, and operation processes through automation technology is becoming an important path to improve operational efficiency.

Green Low-Carbon and Refrigerant Route Transition. Against the backdrop of tightening refrigerant control, the industry’s attention to refrigerant routes has increased significantly. The management of production and use quotas for Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) has become stricter, compressing the application space of traditional medium and high-temperature refrigerants. According to public information, in the 2027 Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and HFCs quota plan issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in October this year, the total production quota for controlled uses of HFCs remains anchored at the baseline value. Meanwhile, natural refrigerants such as carbon dioxide (R744) and ammonia (R717), with extremely low Global Warming Potential (GWP), have received more attention in scenarios with high safety requirements such as food and pharmaceuticals. New large-scale cold storage projects start evaluating low-carbon refrigerant routes during the project selection phase.

Policy and Project Sides Accelerating in Sync. At the policy level, national documents focusing on cold chain logistics have been intensively introduced recently. Origin pre-cooling, layout of public and functional composite cold storage, renovation and upgrading of old facilities, and promotion of new energy cold chain equipment have become key directions. The industry’s competition logic is shifting from a single capacity race to a full-chain temperature control capability competition. At the project level, since October, cold storage projects in multiple regions have started construction and put into operation, with integration and low-carbonization becoming the common orientation of new projects.

Implications for Builders and Operators. The industry’s main line is clear: First, new projects should reserve interfaces and load margins for automation and digitalization during the planning phase to avoid high costs of later transformation. Second, refrigerant selection should align with low-carbon routes as early as possible, balancing compliance and long-term operating costs. Third, energy efficiency management and full-link temperature control data should be built as core competitiveness. Whoever can transform "scale" into "efficiency" earlier will gain a competitive edge in the new round of competition.