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Published- Mar 2021
Number Of Pages – 155
1. Global rail wagon fleet as of December 2020 ~6.2 Million. Russia, China and North America cumulatively account for ~71% share of global freight wagon fleet
2. The DFC project in India is expected to make impact the wagon production heavily and highest growth rate in terms of volume. The one striking limitation in the Indian freight wagon network is the average axle load of the wagons and the average speed of the freight trains. At present, the average speed is less than half of that of US and Europe.
3. Globally, the production of freight wagons is estimated to have dropped by at least 19-20% in 2020. However, after 1st quarter the traffic in China, Eurasia and Europe regions spiked as the delivery of medical supplies propelled the route
4. In North America, covered hoppers and tankers are the biggest and youngest freight wagon type in overall fleet, tankers are mostly owned by private operators whereas covered hoppers predominantly owned by railroad operators
5. EU rail freight industry witnessed a € 2.28 B revenue loss in 2020, a 12% decrease in the revenue Y-o-Y. The volumes dropped by 30% in the first half of the year, but by the end of the year it had recovered to mitigate the losses
Rail freight is an important business segment for many rail operators as its much more profitable than passenger carrier segment. Majority of the demand for freight wagons is comprised of replacement units as the overall fleet size has remained constant for many years now.
Rail freight wagons market has consistently evolved over past century and in Sep 2019, Transnet Freight Rail, inaugurated a freight train with 375 wagons and a total length of around 4 km, enabling a payload of 23,625 tonnes of manganese ore.
In Asia, China`s belt and road initiative has given a much needed to boost to rail freight in the region. The number of China-Europe freight trains has gone past 6,400 in 2019 from less than 20 in 2011. More than 65 freight train routes now originate from almost 50 Chinese cities reaching more than 40 cities in Europe.
The US freight wagon market is among world`s biggest. Hoppers, tankers and flat wagons make up for more than 80% share of overall fleet.
Among private freight car owners, Greenbier and TTX own approximately 0.5M wagons cumulatively. Among rail road operators, BNSF and Union pacific railroad cumulatively had 150,000 wagons.
India is among world`s biggest freight wagon market, globally sourcing ~11,000 units per annum from various vendors. More than 40% of them are used in carrying coal for various thermal powerplant across the country.It released its biggest order in June 2018, when it announced a tender for 22,000 freight wagons.
Indian Railways also placed an additional order for 9,468 wagons in May 2019, costing $375 Million.The breakup of orders is as follows : 3,900 open wagons, 2,840 open rapid discharge hopper wagons, 1,000 rail wagons, 1,021 flat wagons and 700 other variety of wagons.
Coal and coke contribute nearly 60 per cent of the freight traffic, followed by cement and food grains, therefore the demand for open wagons is higher than others.
Keeping in mind the delay in supply of freight wagons by private manufacturers, the Indian Railways increased its production to 4,000 wagons in 2019.
In 2006, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) was set up by the Ministry of Railways to undertake planning & development, mobilization of financial resources and construction, maintenance and operation of the dedicated freight corridors.
The DFC aims to connect the Golden Quadrilateral (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata) and its two diagonals (Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Kolkata), comprising a total of 10,122km.
Nov 2019– Genesee & Wyoming’s North Carolina & Virginia Railroad completed an upgrade its 90 km network to handle 130 tonne wagons
July 2019– The state owned India railways sought government approval to build three dedicated freight corridor(DFC) networks(totaling 5,770 Km in length) with an investment of $44 Billion.Construction of the first two DFC, totaling 3,360 km in length is already underway.
The global rail freight wagon market is estimated at $XX Billion in 2020 growing at –% CAGR till 2025. Due to less demand in countries like US and Russia the volume is expected to remain below 2019 level in the forecast period China. China will continue to contribute and the growth is expected to better than other countries.
Most of the companies in freight wagon market are expanding their presence into more geographies and developing better products with improved payload.
For example- Estonian freight operator Operail has established Operail Finland with the aim of entering Finland’s rail market. It plans to invest $55M to develop the business and acquire rolling stock as part of its strategy of diversifying its activities with new services, products and markets.RM Rail’s Ruzkhimmash plant has developed a further four types of hopper wagon taking its wagon range to 78 designs.
China state owned CRRC, which is the biggest supplier of global rolling stock market with more than 30% market share has now won many orders to supply locomotives has now won orders to supply locomotives to operators in several East European countries, including Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Czech Republic.
