Truck maker MAN plans to cut 2,300 jobs in Germany (updated)

Traton SE

20/11/2025 13:48

Changes format, adds union reaction, MAN CFO comment, more detail

By Christina Amann

BERLIN, Nov 20 (Reuters) - German truck maker MAN, one of Traton's 8TRA.DE brands, plans to cut around 2,300 jobs in Germany over the next 10 years, a spokesperson said on Thursday, as it grapples with weak demand in its home market and cost issues.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT?

Traton, majority-owned by Europe's largest car group Volkswagen VOWG.DE, is preparing a new truck platform, dubbed Traton Modular System or TMS, across its brands and aims to invest money mainly in Poland, where costs are lower.

CONTEXT

MAN's finance chief Inka Koljonen said the company would make its TMS investments in Eastern Europe rather than Germany. "Anything else would be commercially wrong and would come back to haunt us in a few years," she said in an interview published on MAN's website and seen by Reuters.

Koljonen pointed to Germany's sluggish economy, customers' reluctance to invest, looming new EU climate legislation and pressure from new Chinese rivals.

All German production sites remain in operation, according to MAN. "And we also want to invest another billion euros in our German sites over the coming years," Koljonen says.

BY THE NUMBERS

The majority of cuts will be in Munich, where 1,300 jobs will go, according to the company. Plants in Salzgitter and Nuremberg will also be affected.

In the first nine months of this year, MAN's margin came in at 5.6%, missing its goal of 8%.

REACTION

Union IG Metall said it will fight the company's decision.

"If decisions are made based on where there are more subsidies, if a CEO engages in subsidy hopping, then he's not fulfilling the role of a CEO," IG Metall's regional manager Horst Ott said.

"The company is pocketing research and development subsidies in Germany and then collecting EU subsidies for relocations to Poland," Ott said.

($1 = 0.8685 euros)

 (Reporting by Christina Amann, writing by Thomas Seythal, editing by Madeline Chambers and Jane Merriman)

 ((berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com))