JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #117 - November/December 2017 - 43

Steady growth for the world rail market

More information
UNIFE has been representing the European rail manufacturing industry in
Brussels since 1992. With 23 full-time
staff, the association gathers over 100
of Europe's leading large and SME rail
supply companies active in the design,
manufacture, maintenance and refurbishment of rail transport systems,
subsystems and related equipment.
UNIFE also brings together 14 national
rail industry associations of European
countries. Its members have an 84%
market share in Europe and supply
46% of the worldwide production of
rail equipment and services. UNIFE
advocates its members' interests at
both the European and international
level, actively promoting EU rail
equipment and standards within
Europe and abroad.

Fig. 3: Development of rolling stock worldwide 2013-2015 (thousands of units)

In line with the overall market growth,
the infrastructure in operation grew
by 26,000 km, primarily in the urban
and very-high-speed track segments,
with track infrastructure in sum
reaching more than 1.6 m km of urban
and interurban tracks.
The bulk of the additional track
kilometres can be attributed to the
Asia-Pacific region due to the construction of new routes in China and
India. Including the five additional
countries mentioned above, it is worth
noting that approximately 40% of all
track kilometres are electrified, mostly in Western Europe and Asia Pacific,
leaving considerable market potential
for further track electrification. The
installed base of rolling stock in the

60 countries totals approximately 6.2
million units, of which 88% are freight
cars. In relative terms, the metro
segment showed the highest growth
rate adding more than 8,000 new units
to the installed base when compared
with the previous study.
Continued growth expected in the
future
As per the study's forecasts, the total
market for rail supply is set to continue
its growth of recent years at 2.6%. The
rail supply market is foreseen to reach
approximately EUR 185 billion per annum in the 2019-2021 period. W hile
the different regional markets are projected to grow steadily in the future,
the highest growth rates are expected
in Western Europe and Africa/Middle
East, 3.1% and 3.0% respectively.

the highest contribution (in absolute
values) to the overall growth is predicted to stem from the services and
rolling stock segments that will supply
68% of the expected market growth.
This growth of the rail supply industry
will enable the sustainable improvement of mobility both in developed
and developing countries, with rail
as the backbone of an intermodal
transport system where urbanisation
goes hand in hand with sustainable
development goals (Figure4).
More information:
http://unife.org

estern urope and Africa/Middle
East expected to show the strongest growth rates, Asia Pacific to
remain at high levels
From a product segment perspective,

Fig. 4: Future development of the global rail supply market per annum

N°117 November - December 2017

/ jec composites magazine

Feature Land Transportation

largest contribution to the market's
growth in the 2013-2015 period
compared to the 2011-2013 period
stemmed mainly from the rolling
stock and services segments. Added
together, these two segments account
for 72% of the total rail market in the
2013-2015 period. The highest growth
rates were recorded both in the rolling
stock and the rail control segments,
with 5.8% and 4.9% respectively. In
particular, the rolling stock sector
benefitted from record-high purchases
of locomotives and freight wagons as
well as from several large-scale orders
in other product segments, such as
metros, commuter trains and (very)
high-speed trains.

43
http://www.unife.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #117 - November/December 2017
