MAN warns not to expect any new trucks hitting Australian shores soon
Following previous statements issued by MAN Truck & Bus relating to the impact of the Russia/ Ukraine conflict on production, the company has announced the arrival of the new MAN truck generation to local markets has been delayed.
The postponement of new MAN truck arrivals was confirmed by local distributor Penske Australia.
According to MAN, the war in Ukraine is leading to massive supply gaps for truck wiring harnesses which impacts production schedules, with the company expecting the duplicated supply structures for wiring harnesses to take several months to have an impact.
Since March 14 there has been a standstill in the truck plants in Munich and Krakow amongst other European manufacturing plants due to a lack of supply in truck wiring harnesses.
According to MAN, Ukrainian sites can’t produce these harnesses or can only produce a very limited amount of them, threatening a loss of truck production for several weeks and a massive reduction in production in the second quarter.
Despite MAN’s bus production not being significantly affected, the company says its truck production has been delayed, meaning new models won’t hit the local market anytime soon.
Customers have been given the opportunity to cancel orders due to the significantly longer delivery times, with a loss of production for MAN trucks lasting several weeks threatens to impact the company.
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The company has also had to put around 11,000 German employees on short-time work and employ a non-business-critical activity spending freeze to survive through the period.
“As a sign of solidarity with the workforce, the executive board will also significantly waive salary in the next three months due to the development,” MAN CEO Alexander Vlaskamp says.
What this means for Australian customers is that MAN orders are on hold for now and may take months to be fulfilled, as new MAN trucks may not hit our shores until later in the year.
The company is offering an order cancellation but is still open to receiving orders at new conditions.