Rail Composites Market

Updated on : April 01, 2024

Rail Composites Market

Rail Composites Market was valued at USD 1.7 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 2.4 billion by 2028, growing at 7.2% cagr from 2023 to 2028. The high strength and low weight of this composite makes it suitable for various rail applications. Using composite makes the rail carriage lighter and renders greater resistance to heat, external impact, and reduces power consumption by improving overall performance. Various other benefits associated with the reduction of rail carriage weight are lower inertia, less track wear, enhanced stability, and the ability to achieve high speed. With extensive research and cost-effective mass production techniques in place, the demand for composite in the railway sector has increased.

Attractive Opportunities in Rail Composites Market Trends

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Rail Composites Market Dynamics

Driver: Reduced weight & parts consolidation

Currently, weight reduction is an important aspect in the rail industry globally. The advantages of light-weight rail components are better fuel-efficiency and lower greenhouse emissions. For example, a 10% reduction in rail weight can improve fuel efficiency by 5% to 7% for conventional internal combustion engines or can increase the efficiency range of an electric train by 10%. Not only does this help protect the environment but also enables OEMs to meet stringent emission and fuel-economy standards.

Lightweight components contribute to overall rail weight reduction, resulting in reduced fuel consumption and less CO2 emissions. Due to the superior strength to weight ratio, composites and their parts consolidation capability offer dramatic reductions in weight. This enables performance benefits to rail and systems. China accounts for the largest high-speed rail network in the world in 2022, followed by Spain and Japan. As of 2022, China has the longest high-speed rail network with almost 40,500 kilometers of high-speed rail lines. The UK is now well placed to exploit the potential advantages given the number of rail projects, including High-speed line to connect London and the channel tunnel. Due to its light-weight characteristic, the UK aims at making a light-weight bogie structure using composites.

Restraint: High processessing & manufacturing cost

The applications of composites have been increasing dramatically in rail interior, exterior, and other structural applications. However, the high material and manufacturing costs of composites, which are used in the manufacturing of various rail components, is one of the factors restraining the molders and OEMs in the supply chain to use composites. Hence, it is necessary to use cost estimation tools for accurate cost estimation in the early design stages to reduce the cost of composites products. Although GFRP and natural fiber composite are averagely priced, the cost of CFRP is comparatively high.

Opportunity: Increasing demand from emerging economies across the world

Traditionally, the glass fiber and carbon fiber composites industry was concentrated in Japan, North America, and Europe. However, in recent years, there has been significant change in emerging economies in Asia Pacific and the Rest of the World. There has been increasing demand for glass fiber and carbon fiber composites in the rail industry in emerging economies, such as India, Brazil, and China. To meet the demand, China has launched a number of research projects on glass fiber and carbon fiber composites and their industrialization.

Due to the growing demand for infrastructure in emerging countries, the need for rail composites is rapidly increasing. The rapidly growing population in countries such as China and India have boosted the growth of the transportation industryriod.

Challenge: Development of cost-effective technologies

The high cost of composite has been a major concern associated with its growth in the rail industry. There are large applications of composites which are not yet commercialized because of cost constraints of composite materials. Developing low-cost technologies is a major challenge for researchers and major manufacturers. Carbon composite is only introduced in high-end luxury and HSR due to the high cost of carbon fiber.

Rail Composites Market Ecosystem

Based on the fiber type, the glass fiber composites segment dominated the market in terms of value and volume.

Glass fiber composites is commonly used in different applications. In case of fiberglass, high number of tiny glass fibers are compiled together and held rigidly in place by a plastic polymer resin. Common resins used in composites include polyester, phenolic, vinyl ester, and epoxy. Due to its superior physical and mechanical properties, such as strength, flexibility, durability, stability, light-weight as well as resistance to heat, temperature, and moisture, glass fiber is used in different rail interior and exterior applications.

Based on application, the exterior components accounted for second-largest market share in terms of value.

In the exterior application segment, composites are used in, side panels, roofs, doors, front nose, vestibule area, and so on. Presently, glass composites are majorly used for manufacturing exterior components along with carbon composites. Carbon fiber composites have many potential applications in the rail industry; however, the high cost still reserves carbon composite only for a handful of applications, such as front nose, beams, flywheel, and others.

Asia Pacific to be the largest market for rail composites during the forecast period.

The growth of rail composites market in Asia-Pacific is driven by its increasing consumption in various HSR, metro, and inter-city trains. This increase in growth is because of the high industrial growth in countries such as China, India, and South Korea. Furthermore, China has become the single-largest consumer of composites in rail applications and is expected to further strengthen its position. The economic expansion and growing population in India will raise the need to develop the country’s public transportation system. This is likely to result in the expansion of the HSR and metro rail networks, and consequently usage of composite in rail applications will increase.

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Rail Composites Market Players

The rail composites market is dominated by a few globally established players. Gurit Holdings AG (Switzerland), Hexcel Corporation (US), 3A Composites (Switzerland), Toray Industries, Inc. (Japan), Solvay (Belgium), Teijin Limited (Japan), Premier Composite Technologies (UAE), Dartford Composites Ltd. (UK), Exel Composites (Finland), Avient Corporation (US), Kineco Limited (India), BASF SE (Germany), AVIC Cabin Systems (UK), BFG International (Bahrain), and Reliance Industries Ltd. (India).  among others, are the main producers in the global market.

These companies are focusing and attempting to establish themselves in the rail composites market by employing a range of inorganic and organic approaches. A thorough competitive analysis of these major rail composites market participants is included in the research, along with information on their company profiles, most recent advancements, and important market strategies.

Read More: Rail Composites Companies

Rail Composites Market Report Scope

The study categorizes the rail composites market based on By Fiber Type, Resin Type, Manufacturing Process, Application, and By Region

By Fiber Type

• Glass Fiber Composites
• Carbon Fiber Composites
• Others

By Resin Type:

• Polyester
• Phenolic
• Epoxy
• Vinyl Ester
• Others

By Manufacturing Process:

• Lay-up
• Filament Winding
• Injection Molding
• Pultrusion
• Compression Molding
• RTM
• Others

By Application:

• Interior components
• Exterior Components
• Others

By Region:

• North America
• Asia Pacific
• Europe
• Rest of the World

Recent Developments

• In Jaunary 2024, Teijin Limited announced that the company will start production and sales of Tenax TM carbon fiber which can be applied in various industrial applications..
• In Jaunary 2024, Toray Industries, Inc. developed TORAYCA M46X carbon fiber. The new offering is around 20% stronger than others in the TORAYCA™ MX series while maintaining a high tensile modulus. Utilizing TORAYCA™ M46X reduces the weight of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic materials, lowering its environmental impact.
• In December 2023, MODEC, Inc.  and Toray Industries, Inc. have jointly developed a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) patch technique for repairs on Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) and Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) systems.
• In October 2023, Toray Industries, Inc., announced that it decided to expand its French subsidiary Toray Carbon Fibers. This move will increase the annual capacity at the Abidos plant (South-West France) from 5,000 metric tons annually to 6,000 metric tons. Production is expected to start in 2025.

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