Rarely selling ice at high temperature!Is it a good business?

Cold chain is the future direction of ice making

On July 15th, in the Shuangfu Make -making ice plant in Nanxun District, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, workers were transporting ice cubes in the ice storage workshop. Picture/China News Agency sent by Lu Zhipeng

This summer, the high temperature weather raged in the north and south of the river: the Central Meteorological Observatory issued a 35 -day high -temperature warning to break the historical record; the 40 ° C in Sichuan -Chongqing area is standard, and the maximum temperature is comparable to Turpan; the rare "main flood period of the main flood period" appears in the Yangtze River Basin. Essence

Under the high temperature, the air conditioner and the electric fan are not enough, and the ice cubes have become a choice for cooling in many places. From office buildings to nucleic acid spots, from the farmer's market to industrial factories, they have become "big households". The demand for ice cubes also brings a fire -making ice plant business, and enterprises cannot meet market demand.

However, with the changes in the seasons, the high -temperature weather trip in the south will gradually end. Is it a good business for ice making?

The ice is sold out

On the hot summer, the air conditioner could no longer be renewed for the migrant worker, and the ice cubes became a new summer elimination artifact.

A staff member of a tea shop in Changsha, Hunan said that this year's temperature has been high for a long time, which has increased the demand for cold drinks, so the demand for ice cubes has increased accordingly. "As the temperature rises, the sales of milk tea have increased from 500 cups per day to 800 cups per day, of which 99%are cold drink cups, and you need to consume about 200 catties of ice cubes a day."

Data show that the national ice cubes on the US group takeaway from the end of July to the beginning of August increased by 182%over the same period last year, and the number of "edible ice" merchants increased by nearly 90%year -on -year. Among them, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Tianjin have become the largest cities to buy ice cubes. The growth rate of related commodities has exceeded the national average of the country, with a growth rate of more than 200%.

In addition to eating ice cubes, a "industrial ice cubes" specifically used for cooling are also hot. These ice cubes are different from the edible ice that can be directly imported. The weight is usually about 80 catties. It is made of salt-containing brine. It can cool down and water slowly. It can be used for more than 10 hours in indoor conditions. Hours.

On August 21, the highest temperature in Chengdu reached 43.4 ° C, which is also the highest temperature since Chengdu has meteorological records.

However, Liu Yan's company was notified to start power limit. "The property tells us that the central air conditioners in the public areas should be closed, and the air conditioner refrigeration temperature in the office area cannot be lower than 28 ° C. The company allows some employees to work at home, but our department must arrive in the job because of the nature of the work." Everyone cools down, the company prepared mung bean soup, Huoxiang Zhengqi liquid, and moved a lot of ice cubes to be placed in all corners of the office area.

There are multiple nucleic acid spots in the North Street, Chengdu, Chengdu Chenghua District. Although they are all under the pergola, they still cannot stop the scorching sun. To this end, the community purchased many ice cubes for the first time, and was divided into each nucleic acid sampling point in the community to help "big white" cool down. The community also called on the surrounding residents to donate ice and frozen ice without ice.

On July 16th, in Changyuan New Village Community, Luzhou Road Street, Luyang District, Hefei City, Anhui Province, sampling workers are using ice cubes to cool down. Picture/China News Agency sent by Zhao Ming

The farmer's market also uses large ice households. A fruit vendor said that fresh fruits in summer are the easiest to deteriorate. In general, when the temperature is higher than 16 ° C, the ice cubes are used to cool down. For example, when litchi is listed, if you transport about 1,000 tons of lychee every day, you need to use 100 tons of ice cubes to keep fresh. In addition, leaf vegetables will also spread a layer of broken ice before loading and transportation.

A expert from the Department of Intelligent Architecture of Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Vocational College told China News Weekly that vegetables with high water content like leafy vegetables will be raised as soon as they enter the cold storage. The ice cubes will volatilize into water vapor when melting, which is more conducive to preserving agricultural products.

Ice factory supply should be required

The surge in demand for ice cubes has also driven the hot business of ice -making factories.

The person in charge of Chengdu Shuangliu's ice -making plant said that summer has always been the "hot season" of ice cubes, but this year, due to the long duration of high temperature weather, the business is extremely popular, and the order volume has doubled more than last year.

According to her, the daily capacity of 1,000 yuan was increased, and now it has increased to 2,000 yuan. A piece of ice weighs 80 pounds, which means that the Nissan capacity has reached 80 tons, but it is still in short supply. "Less than half an hour after getting out of the ice, it was pulled away by the customer, and it was too late to let the cold library."

The above -mentioned person in charge said that in fact, his production capacity can be doubled, but due to the tight power supply in the near future, in order to ensure residents' electricity, the factory is in a state of stopping from 7 am. Essence

Sun Qian in Leshan, Sichuan did not have such troubles. His ice -making plant is not affected by the power limit policy, so it can be produced at full load. In order to meet the market demand, he asked the employees to fall in three shifts 24 hours a day, fighting day and night, and strive to achieve "restless people." In this way, 150 tons of ice can be produced every day, almost 3,000 yuan. "On Leshan, I am already a medium -sized ice -making plant. From the end of June this year to the present, I have produced more than 10,000 tons of ice cubes."

So, how is such a large amount of ice cubes produced? According to the aforementioned experts, the essence of ice making is the same as the refrigerator of the home refrigerator, and the technical threshold is not high. The principle is to use the characteristics of salt water solidification points lower than fresh water to cool the molds filled with freshwater in a salt tank of more than a dozen degrees of Celsius for several hours. After the cooling is completed, immerse the mold into the water at the room to melt the edge of the ice cubes and separate from the iron. Factory ice. Figure/Director Li Jinzheng, Director of the Science Department of the Chinese Refrigeration Society, provided

Although the technical threshold is not high, in fact, the price of this strip -shaped ice cubes is not cheap. China News Weekly contacted a number of ice -making factories in Chengdu as consumers. The price ranges from 15 to 30 yuan. Two pieces were sold, and there may not be stocks.

The downstream "ice cubes are hot", and the performance of upstream ice -making equipment companies is also very eye -catching. The semi-annual performance trailer of the Snowman shares of the ice-making equipment shows that in the first half of 2022, it is expected that the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies is 8 million yuan to 10 million yuan, a significant increase of 128.16%-135.20%year-on-year.

Seeing that the ice business is so good, many netizens are eager to try, saying that they will also open an ice factory in the coming year. According to Red Star News, a daily income of about 270,000 yuan in Shanghai's ice -making plant is about 270,000 yuan. If the month is full, the monthly revenue can reach 8.1 million yuan.

But Sun Qian said that the ice plant looked at the red fire, but actually made a hard work. Affected by high temperature, plus electricity costs, oil prices, and labor costs are rising. This year's ice -making costs are much more expensive than last year. "Usually producing a piece of ice is more than 7 yuan, and now it has to be almost 10 yuan."

The prospect of the ice industry is considerable

On August 25, this year's Sanfu Tian officially ended. According to China Weather Network, in the next week, under the "pinching" of cold air and typhoon, the subtropical high pressure will have a trend of eastward and south pressure, and the intensity will also weaken. This also means that the long -lasting high temperature weather process in the south will enter the ending stage. So, with the end of high temperature weather, will the ice industry usher in cooling?

Chen Wei, director of the Marketing Department of the Snowman Co., Ltd., told China News Weekly that this year's large -scale high temperature in the south has continued to high temperature. For the ice -making industry, the market effective demand has increased a lot, but the ice industry is not just an application from high temperature and hot weather. Segment the industry. "Large -scale ice making machines are mainly used as large -scale commercial supermarkets, meat grinding, ice storage cold air conditioning, concrete cooling, textile and chemical industries; small ice making machines are mainly used as hotel catering, commercial places, medical and creatures and other fields."

According to the company's investigation data, as of the end of August, there were more than 4,500 domestic ice -related existing enterprises, mainly distributed in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hainan and other places. , 44 and 30 respectively. Chen Wei said that this is because the needs of ice manufacturers are often related to fisheries, so they are generally located in coastal areas.

At the same time as the end of high temperature weather, the ban on fishing in the coastal areas in my country has also ended, and the demand for ice in fishing boats will increase significantly. "Prepare for fishing, this is the big customer of the ice factory." Chen Wei pointed out.

On the other hand, due to the needs of deliciousness, medical care and safety, the demand for ice in my country's agricultural products, fresh food, seafood and supermarket retail markets has also increased.

In the opinion of Li Jinzheng, director of the popular science department of the China Refrigeration Society, ice making is part of the cold chain logistics. In December last year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Fourteen Five -Year Plan" Cold Chain Logistics Development Plan ", which proposed that" by 2025, the low temperature treatment rate of meat, fruits and vegetables, and aquatic products reached 85%, 30%, and 85%", respectively. Essence This also means that the ice industry will have a broader development world.

In recent years, with the rapid development of cold chain logistics, the demand for refrigeration equipment has been increasing. Data show that the total scale of my country's cold chain logistics market in 2020 was 383.2 billion yuan, an increase of 44.08 billion yuan from 2019, an increase of 13%year -on -year. According to the forecast of the China Commercial Industry Research Institute, by 2022, the market size of my country's cold chain logistics industry will exceed 450 billion yuan.

Li Jinzheng further stated that with the market's emphasis on cold chain logistics, future food preservation and refrigerated transportation will rely more and more to rely on the whole cold chain. "However, due to cost reasons, the whole cold chain is currently mainly used for domestic high -end food, seafood, and fruits and fruits. For some of the fresh -keeping fresh products with low value, it is still necessary to focus on ice. It exists in the next years. "

However, Chen Wei also reminded that the current use of ice is still improving. He pointed out that the production of edible ice is different from industrial ice. On the one hand, water sources need to be filtered, and on the other hand, it needs to be produced in an environment that has no contact throughout the process, so as to ensure food safety. But to this day, my country has no national compulsory standards for edible ice.

Author: Yu Yuan ([email protected])

Edit: Li Zhiquan

Operation editor: Xiao Ran

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