MAN in USA
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MAN HAS begun to sell its MT range of nine to 13-tonne gvw vehicles in the USA and, depending on how well they are received, will probably build its first North American lorry assembly plant within the next five years.
Gunther Dietz, head of worldwide sales for MAN's commercial vehicle division, told CM last week that his company, like several other European manufacturers (the most recent being Scania), has been attracted by the size of the North American commercial vehicle market.
It was the largest in the world, and the company recognised that "in order to succeed there, we must assemble there".
MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nurnberg) already has an established American subsidiary, MAN Truck and Bus Corporation, with a bus assembly plant in North Carolina. Currently the MTs are being marketed through this company.
MAN claims leadership in the US articulated bus market, having sold around 1,200 units to date. A new 40ft MAN bus is being introduced at a Washington show later this month.
Referring to the recently published annual report which showed continuing losses for' West Germany's second largest cv manufacturer, Dr Dietz said that two factors were responsible for this year's loss. They were the recent seven-week West German engineering workers' strike and the redundancy payments which have resulted from a cut of 6,000 in MAN's workforce over two years.
Dr Dietz said that the strike had caused a shortfall in MAN's production of 700 units and DM 150m (C40m) in lost sales revenue. That in turn had worsened the company's loss by some DM 28m (E7.5m), but he was confident that MAN would break even this fiscal year, 1984/85, and forecast that annual production of completely built-up trucks would rise from this year's 19,000 to 21,000 "within the next two to three years".
The UK is currently MAN's best export market. Up to the end of July this year MAN's UK sales tallied 564 units, already a substantial increase over last year's complete total of 371.