The VW group subsidiary traton, which owns the MAN and scania brands, is calling for a europe-wide scrappage scheme for trucks.
"It won’t tolerate any postponement until the end of the year," said traton boss and VW board member andreas renschler in munich on monday: "something like this has to be done relatively quickly."
Sales figures already fell by 20 percent in the first quarter to 46.000 trucks and buses, profits plummeted by 75 percent to 96 million euros. MAN even in the red, with operating loss of 78 million euros in first quarter.
Traton CFO christian schulz said: "we are also preparing for a significant drop in sales and earnings in the second quarter."After a six-week shutdown, all major plants are now gradually ramping up again, said renschler. If the supply chains hold, production could perhaps even reach 80 percent of capacity again by the middle of the year. But if no new orders came in, the current order backlog would be used up and "vespertized" in two or three months. That’s why he’s calling for "a europe-wide fleet renewal program".
"We need impetus for investment," says the head of traton. "We need a significant boost in the european union." buyers of modern euro 6 trucks could get a government subsidy of 10 or 20 percent of the purchase price. Then many old trucks in the euro-3 to euro-5 emission classes could be replaced and scrapped. This would not only help the company and its employees, but also the climate: "we stand by the CO2 targets," emphasized renschler.
MAN boss joachim drees told the "munchner merkur" (monday) that the biggest challenge at the moment is "the many young used vehicles that have been returned early because of the crisis. Clogging up the new vehicle market."MAN has a full order book, but "our customers are currently taking a close look at what they really need". Tractor units, for example, are hardly in demand.
Traton itself also saves wherever possible. The focus now is on securing solvency, said finance chief schulz. He could get up to 5.5 billion euros in credit from banks and the parent company VW. Renschler said: "short-time work helps in the short term, but not if there are long-term reductions in the number of stacks."At MAN, "significant job cuts are necessary anyway". Informational talks on the subject are continuing. "After overcoming this situation, we will work on the realignment of MAN."
Traton employs 83,000 people worldwide – around 21,000 of them at MAN in bavaria, where trucks and engines are built, and 2,400 at the MAN axle and component plant in salzgitter. Even at the beginning of march, before the corona crisis, MAN had announced a massive reduction in jobs in order to be able to make investments for the restructuring of the group.