Int'l exhibition of commercial auto transport boasts record participation.

    MOSCOW, September 13 (Itar-Tass) - Specialized international
exhibition of commercial automobile transport, ComTrans'2011, opens at
Moscow's Crocus Expo exhibition center Tuesday.
    Representatives of the organizer company, Media Globe, say the
exhibition has every opportunity to become the world's largest display of
commercial auto transport in 2011.
    Spokespeople for the press service of the event say the International
Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers /OICA/ has included Moscow's
ComTrans in the official calendar of events as of this year, and the
leading international companies in the segment of commercial transport
have started choosing it as a high-performance business floor.
    "An intense interest to the exhibition is also firmly linked with the
high rates of growth of the Russian market of these automobile
technologies," a source told Itar-Tass.
    According to his data, some 320 companies from Russia, former Soviet
republics and foreign countries are taking part in ComTrans'2011.
    The manufacturers of trucks, busses, trailers, special vehicles, and
assembly units, as well as providers of maintenance services will
demonstrate their commercial offers on an area of over 45,000 square
meters in the Crocus Expo pavilions and at open-air floors in the next
five days.
      Compared with last year, the exhibition area has doubled and the
number of participating companies has gone up 70%, the organizers said.
    The list of foreign companies displaying their heavy-duty/medium-duty
trucks and busses includes MAN, Volvo, Scania, Mercedes-Benz, Renault
Trucks, Ford, Fiat, Isuzu, Peugeot, Volkswagen, and Hyundai.
    The Russian automobile industry is represented by GAZ Group, AMO ZiL,
NEFAZ, and TAGAZ companies.
    KAMAZ, one of Russia's leading manufacturers of trucks, has
constructed the largest-ever exhibition stand where it shows the entire
range of its products and the cars under design at the moment.
    This year's ComTrans has one more interesting feature - the first
presentation of the trucks and busses that are not in operation in Russia
yet.
    These are the exclusive models of Mercedes-Benz trucks, the first
Unimog truck assembled in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny on the  Volga,
and an ecology friendly MAN truck fitted out with a Euro 4 AdBlue engine,
the supplies of which in Russia have begun.
    Volvo pays special attention to the business solutions on the basis of
trucks assembled in the city of Kaluga 180 km southwest off Moscow.
    Experts and visitors will see a novel car from Belarus - a powerful
long-haul tractor with an entirely new cab.
    ASM Holding company says the car plants located in Russia built and/or
sold 92,795 trucks in the period of January through to June. This is 45.8%
more than in the same period a year ago.
    An absolute increase of sales has been registered in all segments of
the market, but the imports of new trucks have shown the biggest rise.
    As for the market of busses, it is recuperating in this country slowly
enough after the crisis. Experts say the total output of Russian busses
may stand at 37,313 this year, including the 7.911 busses of foreign
brands assembled at plants in Russia.
    A ceremony will be held after the official opening of the exhibition later Tuesday where the winners of the annual competition for the best
commercial vehicle.
    "The main criterion for selecting the best vehicle is its contribution
to the upgrading of efficiency and security of transportation," an organizer said.