The war in Ukraine is leading to massive supply gaps for truck wiring harnesses at MAN Truck & Bus, the company says.

As a result, since 14 March there has been a standstill in the truck plants in Munich and Krakow as well as significant production downtimes at the Nuremberg, Salzgitter and Wittlich plants.

Suppliers of truck wiring harnesses cannot produce at their Ukrainian sites or can only produce to a very limited extent. This threatens a loss of truck production for several weeks and a massive reduction in production in the second quarter.

MAN’s bus production is not significantly affected.

“Due to the dramatic situation, the executive board of MAN Truck & Bus SE immediately took measures to deal with the situation,” said Alexander Vlaskamp, CEO of MAN Truck & Bus.

“Immediately after the outbreak of war, among other things we began to duplicate Ukrainian supply structures for truck wiring harnesses in other countries. However, this takes several months. In addition, we have decided to comprehensively stop spending on non-business-critical activities and, until further notice, a hiring freeze,” he said.

“Short-time work was prolonged for the Munich, Nuremberg, Salzgitter and Wittlich sites and also extended to include administration. This means that up to 11,000 MAN employees in Germany will go on short-time work at the peak. Country-specific regulations apply to employees abroad.

“As a sign of solidarity with the workforce, the executive board will also significantly waive salary in the next three months due to the dramatic development.”