Market drivers

Overall, the key drivers for new developments are population and urbanization, digitalization and innovation, sustainability and economic developments in specific geographies. These changes are affecting infrastructure and rolling stock in a variety of ways.

Rail provides an answer to sustainable mobility and the land movement of people and goods. It ensures energy-efficient mass urban/suburban commuting in “smart cities,” regular and high-speed travel between cities, and economical freight transport across continents.

Population size, urbanization, congestion and economic development have stimulated rolling stock orders, including high-speed trains, electrical multiple units (EMUs), locomotives, trams and metros. According to Unife, the market for rolling stock amounted to approximately 54 bn EUR per annum in the past two years. APAC accounted for the largest part of the total market with some 44 % market share followed by Western Europe (19%) and NAFTA (15%). 

FLAMEX® cables solutions for sustainable mobility

Nexans is a world leader in the cabling of rolling stock. As a promoter of solutions for sustainable mobility, Nexans draws on its technological expertise and innovative capabilities to meet the current and future needs of OEMS, operators and passengers. We offer a complete range of FLAMEX® high-end products for communication, monitoring or power distribution. We design and market a customized service package to support operational challenges of the rolling stock industry.

Nexans can supply the hundreds of specialty products necessary to fit out a complete trainset. FLAMEX® cables are conform to EN 45545-2 i-e. products are halogen-free, non-toxic, non-corrosive, low smoke, flame and fire retardant. Our products are also designed to withstand fire tests according to national or international standards including NFPA 130 or GOST-R 31565.

We are seeing three key trends rolling stock, driven by customer demand, technology developments and legislation:

• Fire safety
   
• Communication
   
• Power consumption

Over the last years Nexans has shown its expertise in the development of various cable solutions to tackle these technical drivers. It is nowadays illustrated by an extensive range of communication cables, fire resistant cables or high temperature power cables.