MAN’s truck division is aiming for an operating margin of 7% in 2006, up from 6.4% in 2005, according to Reuters.
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This would come mainly from cost savings of EUR100m a year.
At its annual results press conference today, Anton Weinmann, chief of MAN, was reported as saying that orders and deliveries for the start of 2006 were robuts. New orders are continuing to rise, indicating that a peak in the European truck market has not yet been reached.
In the first two months of 2006 MAN has received orders worth EUR1.6bn, 39 % more than in the same period last year. Here the order intake in the truck division grew by 35 %, and in the bus division by 63 %.
MAN is stepping up its globalisation efforts. At the end of April 2006 it will establish a joint venture in India for the production of heavy trucks (16-32 tonnes) with Force Motors.
The jointly owned company, MAN Force Trucks, will produce, develop and sell trucks under the MAN brand name, as well as conduct joint purchasing. These vehicles are tailored specifically to the requirements of the Asian market.
MAN will have a 30 % holding in the joint venture. Altogether the new company will invest EUR150m and in the medium term aims to produce 24,000 vehicles per year. Production of vehicles for India will commence in 2006 and for other Asian markets in 2007.
In Poland, MAN is building an assembly plant in Niepolomice, near Kracow. Approximately EUR90m is being invested in the new plant, which is due to come on-stream in mid-2007 and will have a capacity of 15,000 vehicles over 16 tonnes in single-shift working.
