India's Tata Motors, the fourth largest manufacturer of medium to heavy commercial vehicles in the world, is set to launch its new range of vehicles at the upcoming Commercial Vehicles Middle East expo (CVME) in Dubai.

The CVME will run from March 14 to 16 bringing together the largest annual gathering of transport, fleet and logistics decision makers from every sector of the region's road transport business.

It covers all types of heavy and light commercial vehicles, special vehicles, vehicle attachments, accessories, maintenance and repair services.

“CVME provides us with the opportunity to open new business avenues and to tap into the growing market of commercial vehicles in the region,” remarked Murari Trivedi, regional manager of Tata Motors, also the second largest bus manufacturer in the world.

“We plan to showcase our wide range of products and launch new products at the show, to strengthen our position in the Middle East markets,” he added.

The event organisers, Streamline Marketing Group, said CVME was launched last year to position the UAE as a regional focal point for the commercial vehicles industry in the region.

Liberty Automobiles, the General Motors dealer for Cadillac, Chevrolet, Hummer and Opel, will be under spotlight as it showcases the world’s first electric zero emission bus, along with a lineup of their newly acquired franchise-Otokar buses from Turkey, the organisers stated.

The CVME will also be a major draw for Renault Trucks, which uses a network of 25 dealerships, 40 service points and mobile workshops to cover 18 countries across the region and will have a strong presence both in the indoor exhibition hall and the outdoor display area, it added.

One of the global transport heavyweights, Iveco, which has 74 dealers, 13 satellite locations and 139 sales points across the Mena region, will be a prominent exhibitor at the expo launching new products.

The company boasts a vast range of light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, and also manufactures passenger transport vehicles and special vehicles for defence, civil protection and specific missions like fire-fighting.

“This was already a thriving business in the Middle East, and despite the economic downturn everything pointed to a great deal of expansion as the market recovered, which is what we are now seeing,” said Nick Webb, director of Streamline Marketing Group.

In the UAE and other parts of the region, the expansion of public bus services is more good news for commercial vehicle manufacturers, he remarked.

A record 39 million passengers used Abu Dhabi department of transport buses by end of the third quarter of 2010, an increase of 16 million passengers over the same period last year, and the DOT will continue to expand its bus fleet as it continues to develop the capital’s transport infrastructure.

The CVME also features a Hosted Buyer and Matchmaking Programme exclusively for exhibitors to meet procurement delegations from the region’s top buyers, he added.-TradeArabia News Service