Steyr makes overtures to UK truck market
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• The complete range of Austrian-built Steyr trucks, with gross weights from nine to 38 tonnes, may go on sale in the UK next year.
Steyr-Daimler-Puch's chief executive, Otto Voisard, confirms our exclusive report of 17-23 September that his company is considering establishing a UK dealer network based on dealers who lost franchises following Bedford's withdrawal and the formation of Iveco Ford and Leyland Daf.
As long ago as March last year (CM 22 March 1986) it became clear that Steyr's then new middleweight range (with GVWs from nine to 16 tonnes) could find its way to this country, but only in the past week has it emerged that Steyr heavyweights, which use a
much older cab, are included in the plans.
Voisard saysthat the decision on whether or not to introduce the complete Steyr range to the UK will be taken "before the end of this year". He also confirms that S-D-P is keen to enter into component exchange agreements with other manufacturers and that talks along these lines have already begun with ERF.
Voisard will neither confirm nor deny that the new Steyr middleweight cab is one of the components under discussion with ERF, but he says that Steyr is particularly interested in some plastic, SMC (sheet moulding compound) components manufactured by ERF Plastics.
"Our talks with ERF are not yet finalised, but they are about a mutual exchange of components," he says.
Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG is majority-owned by Creditanstalt-Bankverein, the Austrian state-owned bank, and is Austria's only CV manufacturer apart from the MAN subsidiary OAF. The company has sites in Vienna, Graz and Steyr and last year produced about 3,500 vehicles. Its most notable existing joint ventures are with Daimler-Benz, for the manufacture of GeLandewagen 4x 4s and Volkswagen, for the manufacture of Syncro 4 x4 Transporters.
In 1986 S-D-P made its heaviest loss ever, losing a billion Austrian Schillings (g50 million) on a turnover of £630 million.