Manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus to cut 2,300 jobs in Germany

German manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus on Thursday said it plans to cut around 2,300 jobs in Germany over a period of 10 years.

No redundancies are planned, a company spokesman said, with positions to decrease naturally through retirement.

The manufacturer’s main plant in Munich is to be worst affected, with 1,300 jobs lost, followed by 600 at the site in Salzgitter and 400 in Nuremberg.

MAN must “adapt to the continuing weakness of the truck market in Germany,” the spokesman said, warning that high electricity and labour costs paired with rising pressure from Asian competitors are weighing on results.

“We are now entering a phase of high investment and need to generate sustained profits in order to expand our product portfolio,” he said.

The IG Metall union warned that the relocation of production to a new Polish site run by MAN’s parent company, the Traton Group, will affect factories in Germany.

The plans “jeopardize the long-term existence of the main Munich plant,” said union representative Sybille Wankel.

“No one is losing their job today, but in the long term, the decision means that the MAN truck of the future will be built in Poland and not in Munich,” she added.

If “all parts for a truck are manufactured in Poland and transported from there to Munich for assembly only,” Wankel explained, “it is obvious that at some point, assembly in Munich will also be up for discussion.”