Technological advances in road safety and EURO 4 and 5 engines for commercial vehicles are recruited as 'defense weapons' by the large European commercial vehicle manufacturers in an effort to limit the attempts of the European commission to direct a portion of road transport to rail.

This was one of the main conclusions from our participation in a special international workshop which was organized in mid July, in Frankfurt, by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). This meeting of the press was organized with the opportunity of the international IAA Commercial Vehicles Show which is expected to open its gates on the 23rd of September in Hanover with over 1,200 exhibitors from over 40 countries participating.

At this event the discontent of the German Truck manufacturers was also pointed out as, while they are making huge investments in the production of ultra-modern vehicles, the German government is no longer investing in road works but rather in rail works.

The above, in combination with the observation that the large market for commercial vehicles now is China, was a main theme of this special workshop in Frankfurt. The president of the VDA - who is organizing the large international exhibit - Professor Bernd Gottschalk (foto), pointed out that "today China is a larger world market for Commercial Vehicles than Western Europe and the United States combined'! Professor Gottschalk specified that "uring the first five months of this year sales of heavy-duty trucks rose by 20 percent in China" If this is not convincing enough, let's look at the combined sales of commercial vehicles in China in 2003: according to recent data 2.4 million trucks were sold in China last year, i.e. it now constitutes the largest market in the world.

The above justifies the interest of the large manufacturers in this country which is seeing rapid growth - and therefore demand for commercial vehicles. It is characteristic that more than 25 percent of the commercial vehicles in the world are now already manufactured in China. DaimlerChrysler has already created a strong strategic position for itself thanks to its cooperation with Fuso.

It also participates in a joint venture for vans with the Chinese Fujian Motor Industry Group. Volkswagen has had a strong position in China for many years and MAN established a new subsidiary called MAN Truck & Bus China, thus underscoring its ambitions in the rapidly growing Chinese market.

From the Chinese market we move on to the investment opportunities which are opening up in Eastern European countries especially now that many of them have joined the European Union. In these countries, the increase in sales in trucks was greater than that of China in the first five months of this year as it reached 25 percent! Regarding technological advances in commercial vehicles it appears that these are what will constitute - if they don't already- the 'weapon' with which the European manufacturers will support the strength of road transport in the logistics sector and therefore prevent the lack of transport works as the European Union intends for the purposes of Environmental protection. As was stated by the Managing Directors of Mercedes Benz, MAN , IVECO and Scania; Eckhard Corbes, Hakan Samuelson, Jose Maria Alapont and Hasse Johansson accordingly: The 60th IAA in Hanover in September will be characterized by product innovations! 'With the new technologies for reducing emissions and fuel consumption, the commercial vehicles industry is about to take a quantum leap regarding environmental standards in the road-freight sector'.