The global freight wagon market is expected to continue growing over the next four years, but regional differences will leave Europe lagging behind, according to new data from rail consultancy SCI Verkehr.
The company’s ‘Freight Wagons – Global Market Trends 2024’ report predicted annual growth of 2.6% between 2024 and 2028 for both the global OEM market and the freight wagon aftersales sector, but indicated that the European market could see a decline due to a weakened economy.
SCI Verkehr said: “While production capacity for both 2024 and 2025 is well utilised thanks to existing contracts, the freight wagon industry in Europe is feeling the effects of the challenges in the rail freight market.
“The intermodal wagon sector has been particularly affected. Previously high demand for container and pocket wagons – key contributors to the substantial volume of the market over the past two years – has now collapsed due to reduced transport demand.”
According to the research, the problems in the European market will manifest themselves in the second half of 2025, when the sector declines, despite positive signs in alternative sectors such as car transporters.
While Europe is expected to decline over the projection period, freight car markets in all other regions are expected to grow through 2028, with the North American market returning to growth of around 3% after a period of decline.
According to SCI Verkehr, the strongest growth will be observed in the South and Central American market. The region is expected to show an annual growth of more than 7%. This is considerably better than Africa and the Middle East, where the second highest growth is expected, namely around 3.5%.
The issues raised in the report echo the complaints voiced by freight operators on the European market in recent years, calling for more government support to address the rising costs of electrification and rail access charges.
In March, a report by ProRail, the national manager of the Dutch railway infrastructure, concluded that the country Rail freight transport fell by 10% in 2023while the government in the United Kingdom has a 75% growth target for the freight sector by 2050, after a series of job losses and calls for help from the industry.
“Global freight wagon market grows despite European decline – study” was originally prepared and published by Railway technologya brand of GlobalData.
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