In June, the European Commission, the Directorate General of Enterprise and Industry, published the report on the competitiveness of the railway industry according to which the EU has a strong leader position compared to non-EU countries, which also have a developed market. Europe is in the top of global trade, a situation also confirmed by the analyses and the competitive advantages of Europe. Regarding the delivery of complex technological solutions, the European railway industry is also among the top suppliers.
The European railway industry is a significant economic sector being estimated at EUR 40 Billion (2010) with a gross added value of 30% of production. Regarding the value of production, the rolling stock and locomotive market is the most important market which equals the market segment of railway infrastructure, followed by signalling and electrification.
As a result, the rolling stock and the locomotives create the largest and most globalised market, shows the report on the competitiveness of the European railway sector, launched in June by the European Commission, the Directorate General of Enterprise and Industry (Sector Overview and Competitiveness Survey of the Railway Supply Industry, conducted by Ecorys).
The EU is in the lead as a top exporter accounting for 21% of railway total trade. In addition, the EU is the most important producer of railway products, “the good performance of the railway industry indicating the optimisation of competitiveness. Moreover, the industry has improved its gross operating rate and productivity levels”, the study states. The European railway industry has improved compared to the USA and Japan whose market share in production and total of exports dropped. Compared to China, the EU has a global competitive advantage, although China is trying to fill in the gap. This advantage can be noticed in the commercial data where China runs a trade surplus in railway products with all the countries except for the EU.
The European railway industry has a series of key elements compared to non-EU countries: an important advantage of the railway electrification industry is the development of the ERTMS, a system also implemented by non-EU countries; another point refers to the significant development of integrated solutions, such as merging the technology of vehicles with intelligent signalling systems, the optimisation of operations and the management of services. Moreover, the European railway suppliers have qualified essential components such as the braking systems delivered by specialised and experienced suppliers. In infrastructure, EU is leading the top of the countries which develop long life-cycle steel, rail fastening systems, switches and high-quality concrete and plastic sleepers, whose role is to maintain certain limits of maintenance costs and to guarantee the safety of operations. The highest competitor in this segment is Japan.
The EU spends significant amounts of resources in R&D ranging between 4% and 10% for the more technologically advanced market segment of locomotives and rolling stock and signalling and electrification. For the infrastructure segment this R&D expenditure is much lower at 2% due to different R&D requirements. Also, estimates regarding the mere technological development vary significantly of the type of technology. For vehicles, the stress will fall on improving design, for engines, on increasing efficiency and on reducing the pollution level. Generally, the development of the R&D will aim at making mobility efficient, especially in urban areas.
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