b'16American Journal of Transportation ajot.comPost-COVID demand for pharmaCarrier Transicolds Lynx Fleet platform supports mixed cold-chain facilities on the riserefrigerated container fleetsCosts and risks could dampen marketplace supply response.CarrierTransicoldnowanalytics,saidWillyYeo, providesremotemonitor- Director of Marketing, Global By Peter Buxbaum, AJOT ingofmixedfleets,includ- ContainerRefrigeration,Car-ing those using refrigerationrier Transicold. Muchhasbeenmadeofaremoreprecisethanthoseits interesting to note wheresystems from multiple manu- TheLynxFleetsolution thecold-chaininfrastructureformostfoodproducts,sosomeleadingsupply-chainfacturers,throughasingleintelligentlymonitorscon-requiredtostoreanddistrib- pharma will not want to pig- providers have located theirinterface, the companys ver- tainerrefrigerationsystems utetheCOVID-19vaccines.gyback on cold-storage spacepharmacold-storagepres- satile new Lynx Fleet plat- as they move by sea and land, But the demand for cold-chaindesigned for food. ences. In May, DB Schenkerform. Carrier Transicold is aprovidingvitalinformation capacitywasgrowingbeforeThesizeofpharmaceu- AmericasannouncedithadpartofCarrierGlobalCor- throughacentralizeddata the pandemic hit, and the phar- ticalscold-storagefacilitiesexpanded its existing India- poration,theleadingglobalstreamthatimprovesvis-maceuticalssegmentwasatypically range between 20,000napolislogisticsfacilitytoprovider of healthy, safe andibility for shipping lines and growing,althoughstillsmall,and 60,000 square feet, notedincludeanadditional5,000sustainable building and coldtheir customers.part of cold-chain demand.CBRE, much smaller in scalesquare-footcoldroomandchain solutions. Relevant data from non-Pharmaceuticals giants con- thantraditionalcold-storage50,000squarefeetofcon- The latest upgrade to ourCarrierequipmentwillbe tinuetodevelopnewprod- warehouses,whichusuallytrolledroom-temperatureLynx Fleet platform fulfills andisplayedalongwithCar-ucts,includingmany,suchencompass 150,000 to 400,000space,morethandoublingimportant aspect of our digitalrierunitsontheLynxFleet as biologics developed fromsquare feet. All of these factsthetemperature-controlledvision, enabling our customersdashboard,providingfleet living organisms, which relyhighlight why potential devel- areasatthefacility.India- to monitor all their refrigeratedmanagersaccesstoalltheir oncoldstoragethroughoutopersofpharmacold-storagenapolis,bynocoincidenceassets,notjusttheirCarrierconnectedrefrigeratedcon-theirsupplychains.Expertsspace are concerned about con- home to the pharmaceuticalsTransicold units, from a singletainers on a single interface, saythebiopharmaceuticalsstruction and operating costs. (DEMANDcontinued oncloud-basedplatformthatis(PLATFORMcontinued on industryloses$35billionaIn connection with costs,page 20) fully equipped with advancedpage 22)yearduetofailuresintem-perature-controlledlogistics andthattemperatureexcur-sionsaccountfor80%of these supply-chain problems.This vulnerability is under-scoredbythefactthatthe averageageofcold-storage warehousesintheUnited Statesis42years,accord-ingtoarecentreportfrom theglobalreal-estatefirm JLL, and that much of that inventoryisagingandrap-idlyapproachingfunctional obsolescence.Thenational vacancy rate of cold-storage facilities sits below 10%, all of which would suggest that demandfornewpharma-ceuticalscold-storagespace should be on the rise.o bstaCles tod eveloPMentBut developing the supply to meet that demand faces a fewobstacles.Newtemper-ature-controlledwarehouses are expensive to build, cost-ingtwiceasmuchastheir conventionalcounterparts, according to JLL: up to $180 a square foot for temperature-controlled warehouses versus $70to$90persquarefoot for conventional warehouses. JLLprojectsthatconstruc-tion costs will increase along with demand, which accounts forthereluctanceofdevel-operstobuildcold-storage facilities on spec; that in turn, putsthecontinuedsqueeze on supply.Iftheuptickindemand forcold-storagespacewill emboldensomedevelopers to try their hand at specula-tiveconstruction,thenthe lionsshareofthatdemand willcomefromfoodcom-paniesandretailers.Phar-maceutical coldstorageisa very small subset of the over-allindustrialcoldstorage sector, noted a recent report fromCBREResearch,so theinvestmentopportunity willnaturallyalsoberather limited.Also,pharma-ceuticalcompaniesrequire coldstorageconditionsthat'