China: According to the producer’s annual report, revenues from the segment fell by almost 30% in 2022 compared to CNY 41 bln ($6.4 bln) in 2021.
Last year’s CNY 29 bln ($4.2 bln) is the lowest CRRC’s revenue for five years. The reduction began back in 2018 when the company received CNY 66 bln or $10 bln, and its rate is accelerating year by year. Between 2018 and 2022, CRRC’s sales of rolling stock have more than halved.
The segment includes both high-speed trains which bring the bulk of CRRC’s revenues and traditional electric and diesel trains. Multiple units used to contribute most to CRRC’s revenue, but since 2021 it became inferior to urban LRVs and infrastructure. The annual report states CRRC delivered only about 700 multiple units in 2022 compared to 2,600 in 2018. Although last year’s overall revenue of CRRC declined by 1.2%, the fall in the railway equipment revenue reached 8.3% due to the sales slowdown of multiple units.
Consultants of SCI Verkehr estimate that in the sector of high-speed trains, CRRC accounted for 58% of the global supply in 2021–2023. Experts anticipate a further decline in high-speed train shipments in China over the next 5 years. When European shipments are expected to grow by 4.1% and other Asian countries by 11%, China can lose 14%; all data are CAGR. According to experts, CRRC’s export contracts like that in Indonesia are not able to balance the heavy downturn in the domestic market.
Anyway, this year China has announced its plans for a further ambitious development of the high-speed rail network. By 2025, the HSR lines in the country are to reach 50,000 km, although at the end of 2021, their length was only 40,000 km. No information on the further purchase of rolling stock has been made public by China yet.
