Mentions of digitalization within the filings of companies in the railway industry rose 47% between the first and second quarters of 2021. Credit: Ales Krivec on Unsplash.

Mentions of digitalization within the filings of companies in the railway industry rose 47% between the first and second quarters of 2021.

In total, the frequency of sentences related to digitalization between July 2020 and June 2021 was 336% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings.

When companies in the railway industry publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. Digitalization is one of these topics - companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

To assess whether digitalization is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the railway industry, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies which have mentioned digitalization at least once in filings during the past twelve months - this was 75% compared to 37% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to digitalization.

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Of the 50 biggest employers in the railway industry, Yamato Holdings Co Ltd was the company which referred to digitalization the most between July 2020 and June 2021. GlobalData identified 66 digitalization-related sentences in the Japan-based company's filings - 2.3% of all sentences. Hitachi Transport System, Ltd. mentioned digitalization the second most - the issue was referred to in 1.9% of sentences in the company's filings. Other top employers with high digitalization mentions included Poste Italiane Group, SG Holdings Co., Ltd. and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha.

Across all companies in the railway industry the filing published in the second quarter of 2021 which exhibited the greatest focus on digitalization came from Yamato Holdings Co Ltd. Of the document's 1,209 sentences, 57 (4.7%) referred to digitalization.

This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on digitalization and how important the issue is considered within the railway industry, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning digitalization more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company's ventures into digitalization have been successes or failures.

In the last quarter, companies in the railway industry based in Asia were most likely to mention digitalization with 0.54% of sentences in company filings referring to the issue. In contrast, companies with their headquarters in Canada mentioned digitalization in just 0.03% of sentences.

 

By Andrew Hillman.