MUMBAI: The cold storage business, which has already gained traction because of demand for Covid19 vaccines will grow further in the new normal, said a senior executive at the India unit of Trane Technologies.
“By July, by the end of the first phase of the vaccination drive, we should be back to double digit growth,” Kishor Patil, India leader for commercial HVAC and transport, at Trane Technologies told ET.
He added that the new proposed farm laws, if they succeed in corporatizing agriculture and paving the way for more farm produce to find their way to supermarkets will also boost the growth of cold storage solutions.
Trane Technologies is a Dublin-headquartered industrial manufacturing company formed in 1905 by the merger of Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company and Rand Drill Company. One of its units is Thermo King, an American manufacturer of transport temperature control systems for trucks, trailers, shipboard containers and railway cars.
Trane Technologies has been selling 400 cold storage units every month in the last few months and has so far equipped 5,000 vehicles mostly for transferring the Covid19 vaccines. The transfer of vaccines started Jan 16.
India aims to vaccinate 30 crore health workers, frontline workers and older citizens in the first phase by August. Vaccine doses, primarily from Serum Institute of India have reached government distribution centres and from there to distribution centres.
Patil said his company has equipped vehicles which will be deployed on both legs of the transportation journey.
Patil said Thermo King in the US has already developed “super freezers” and specialised storage units for Pfizer’s Covid19 vaccines which need to be stored in sub 75 degree temperature levels. He said the company is working with express logistics operators UPS and Fedex for its transportation across the US.
