Logistics is a growth engine, bringing prosperity to far-flung regions. The outstanding importance of logistics in international value chains was shown once again at the 9th logitrans, International Transport Logistics Exhibition, which came to a close on Friday in Istanbul with a record number of visitors.
The current global political situation is a particular challenge for the sector. Ilker Altun, Managing Director of EKO Fuarcilik, and Gerhard Gerritzen, Deputy Managing Director of Messe München, as joint organisers of logitrans, both agreed: “The fact that, despite these circumstances, so many exhibitors and visitors made their way to logitrans 2015 underlines the role that Istanbul as a location plays beyond the borders of Turkey.”
Rainer Bomba, Secretary of State in the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, traveled to Turkey to get to know logitrans and to gain a personal impression of the logistics activities in the country. He emphasised: “Turkey as a bridge to Asia, and Germany as a hub in Europe, offer ideal conditions for German-Turkish cooperation in the field of logistics. I have visited many exhibition booths here and had many talks that have given me insights into the already well functioning cooperation between our two countries.”
Building bridges, making new contacts and paving the way for new business—these were the dominant themes over the three days of this exhibition. In total over 15,000 participants from 54 countries came to find out about the products and services of 220 exhibitors from 22 nations. The international scope and quality among the participants again impressed the sector. “Taking part in a trade fair is only worthwhile when we as exhibitors meet the right visitors and customers. And that was the case at logitrans 2015,” confirmed Vadim Vdovitchenko, CEO of Danube Shipping Management Service GmbH, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. In addition to this, logitrans was praised for the internationality of the show. “In 2015 we saw an outstanding improvement on the exhibitor side and there were a lot of high-quality visitors in need of transport services,” reported Gökalp Cak, Vice President of Netlog Logistics Services of Istanbul.
logitrans has developed into an important trade fair for doing business. “The number of international exhibitors as well as visitors this year again underlined the importance of logitrans as a networking platform for logistics between Asia and Europe. We were therefore very proud to announce at this event our joint venture with Arkas Holding S.A. for developing a multimodal logistic hub in Istanbul,” reported Dr. Sandra Strohbücker, Managing Director, Duisburger Hafen AG. Fernand Rippinger, Senior Advisor Business Development of CFL multimodal of Bettembourg in Luxembourg agreed: “logitrans 2015 was again a success in terms of visibility, customer and prospect contacts. For us, this fair remains the essential meeting point for developing business relations between Turkey and Western Europe.”
The trade exhibition, which attracted 10% more exhibitors than last year, was accompanied by a high-caliber program of supporting events. One of the highlights was the PeriLog Conference, which took place at logitrans for the first time. Last year over 3.5 million tons of fresh produce was exported from Turkey, of which approximately 17% went to the Middle East. “Istanbul has long been strengthening its position as a hub for perishable goods and cool-chain logistics,” said Filiz Hatipoglu, Logistics Manager, from Yuglog of Istanbul, thus affirming the choice of logitrans for the premiere of PeriLog. As well as the particular challenges faced by this special segment of logistics, the program also included, in further trade forums, discussions on infrastructure projects and hinterland connections.
