According to a recent report published by Allied Market Research, titled, “Rolling Stock Market by Type, and End-Use: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019–2026,” the global rolling stock market size was valued at $58.6 billion in 2018, and is projected to reach $73.8 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 2.9% from 2019 to 2026.
At present, the U.S. dominates the market, followed by Canada and Mexico in North America. However, Mexico is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. In addition, in 2018, China led the market in Asia-Pacific region followed by India, Australia, Japan, and rest of Asia-Pacific countries.
Rail transportation can be considered as the enabler of the economic progress which is used to transport goods/products as well as the cargo/ freight. However, one of the biggest restraints in the market is the capital-intensive nature of the market as the cost of the trains are very high. For instance, in April 2018, Indian railways revealed that it is ready to launch country's first 12,000 horsepower (HP) electric locomotive. In addition, the complete project is expected to cost around $200 billion to roll out 800 high horsepower locos over a time period of 11 years in which the average cost of each of the locomotive is estimated to be $250 million. This indicates the requirement of high capital to build as well as to maintain the train network, which is expected to hamper the stated rolling stock market growth.
Rolling stock infrastructure within a country increases the speed and efficiency of the railway systems for freight and passenger transportation. Also, the implementation of the autonomous train needs to be backed up by a large investment. The governments of the developing countries are investing more and more to meet the latest technology setup required for autonomous train. For instance, India invested $1.97 billion in 2018 towards its infrastructure development to meet the latest automation demand and will be investing $777.73 billion till 2022 to meet the required infrastructure demand, which includes railway infrastructure development.
This makes way for the numerous opportunities for train automation players operating in the country. Similarly, Paris has also allocated $28.2 billion to automate its old metro network with the construction of four new metro lines across Paris and expanding the existing lines. Hence, rolling stock market trends include such improvements in developing countries is opportunistic for the rolling stocks market expansion.
With global increase in population, there is rapid increase in industrialization. This in turn boosts the demand of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, such as clay, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, metals, limestone, coal, oil shale, gemstones, potash, gravel, and more. As already discussed, trains are the cheapest mode of transportation by road. Thereby, increase in industrial & mining activity is opportunistic for the market expansion for the key players operating in the global rolling stock market.
Further, the rail transportation is capital intensive industry wherein the cost of the new train is extremely high. In case of the capital crunch, instead of new rails, the existing rails are upgraded (refurbished) which involves replacement of the obsolete equipment with the advanced technical solutions. This not only extends the service life of the vehicle but also increases reliability, functionality, vehicle comfort and vehicle appearance. Therefore, such refurbishments of the existing trains impede the growth of the new rolling stocks.
According to Akshay Jadhav, Lead Analyst, Automotive & transportation at Allied Market Research, “Based on type, the freight wagons segment dominated the global rolling stock market in 2018, in terms of revenue. However, the others segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period (2019–2026). Further, based on end use, cargo train occupied major market chunk in the global market in 2018. However, passenger transit segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.”
KEY FINDINGS of THE STUDY
• Based on train type, the freight wagons segment generated the highest revenue in the rolling stock market analysis in 2018.
• Asia-Pacific is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR during the forecast period while considering market growth.
• Latin America leads the market in the LAMEA region.
• The leading companies from the market report expects high revenue from rolling stock market returns.
The key players profiled in the rolling stock market share include Alstom, Bombardier, CRRC Corporation Limited, General Electric, Hitachi Ltd., Siemens, Stadler Rail AG, The Greenbrier Companies, Inc., TRANSMASHHOLDING, and TrinityRail.