More than 16,000 visitors came to the exhibition halls on the outskirts of Moscow. This is less than in the record year of 2013. Sergey Rybchak, Trade Fair Director of the exhibition organiser ITEMF Expo, was still pleased with the results. ?Despite the current significant depreciation of the commercial vehicle market in Russia, there was a lot of interest on the part of the trade fair visitors. This, together with the numerous premieres and newcomers, proves that COMTRANS continues to be the second most important international commercial vehicle fair, after IAA Commercial Vehicles.?

Despite the currently difficult market situation in Russia, the international exhibitors showed a particularly strong presence. ?In the medium term, the Western European as well as the Asian commercial vehicle manufacturers and suppliers are continuing to see a great potential for their products in Eastern Europe, and they emphasis this with their participation in COMTRANS,? said Peter Bergleiter, Managing Director, IMAG - Internationaler Messe- und Ausstellungsdienst GmbH, the international partner of ITEMF Expo.

Future projects and new series
Many exhibitors used COMTRANS 2015 as a platform for their world premieres or initial presentations of their products at a Russian exhibition.

World premieres were celebrated in particular by the Russian manufacturers of trucks, buses and vans. For example, Kamaz gathered attention with its spectacular cab study ?Transformer?. The Russian truck, bus and van manufacturer GAZ presented as many as seven new models of the so-called Generation Next at COMTRANS 2015. The greatest attention was paid to the new large-capacity van design of the transporter Gazelle Next since the manufacturer is making its way in a segment which had previously been reserved exclusively for foreign manufacturers. For the first time in Russia, MAN presented the TGX 18,560 with the new D38 engine ? the flagship of the long-distance range. Likewise, Mercedes-Benz managed to lure numerous visitors to its stand with the new Actros 1848LS Gigaspace in the Euro 6 design. Scania, Volvo, Renault Trucks and Iveco also had presentations of their current truck series, partly also with Euro 6 engines.

At COMTRANS 2015, the the Chinese truck maker Dongfeng announced its cooperation with the Belgian Turbo Hoet Group, the world?s largest DAF dealers, which is also active in Russia and is going to promote the sales of Dongfeng trucks. In addition to the new long-haul flagship KX, five more truck models as well as the current vans C31 and C35 could be seen at the Dongfeng booth.

News from the world of buses
In addition to the truck and van manufacturers, numerous bus manufacturers also took advantage of COMTRANS 2015 for the presentation of their new models and their current model ranges. Primarily, the domestic brands scored points with innovations. For example, VOLGABUS presented its new model 528 512 CNG Serpentine, a gas-powered bus which was primarily designed for regional intercity traffic. GAZ presented as many as three new bus models. Besides the minibus Vector Next based on the current transporter Gazelle Next, a new city traffic midibus on an Isuzu chassis called Vector-3 was presented, along with the new, 9.50-m-long low-floor bus Liaz-4292 with a Euro 5 engine. Scania celebrated its Russian premiere of the Scania Touring.

Many other manufacturers, including Setra and MAN from Germany, MAZ from Belarus, Golden Dragon from China and the Turkish midibus specialist Aios enriched the range of exhibited buses at COMTRANS 2015.

The next COMTRANS is expected to take place at the Crocus Expo Center in Moscow in September 2017.

HIGHLIGHTS Over 220 exhibitors More than 16,000 visitors Next COMTRANS in September 2017 in Moscow