With majority of MAN employees at Steyr, Austria, voting against the plant takeover by WSA, the risk of closure and with it the loss of thousands of jobs has got bigger.

MAN has announced that a majority of employees at its Steyr manufacturing site in Austria voted against plans by WSA Beteiligungs GmbH to continue operations, in-turn compelling it to start plans to close it post an effort to to once again renegotiate the social plan. With a long history of manufacture associated, the Steyr plant of MAN produces cabs for special vehicles and crew cabs for MAN’s production network. The plant acquired by MAN in 1990 from Steyr, which built traditional ‘bonneted’ trucks in post WWII period, including the distinctive cab over Steyr 90 Series that was introduced in 1968, and the 91 and 92 Series that followed, has a long and proud history attached to it. With currently only one commercial vehicle topic in Austria making headlines in all the major daily newspapers – the planned sale or the closure of the MAN site in Steyr – it should not take much time to understand the situation. Founded in 1864 as Josef und Franz Werndl and Company to manufacture rifles, and in 1894 to produce bicycles, the MAN site at Steyr where the first truck under ‘Steyr’ brand was produced in 1919 is currently known to contribute to the building of MAN TGX, voted as the International Truck of the Year 2021.      

With WSA Beteiligungs GmbH said to belong to investor Siegfried Wolf’s, ex-Magna boss and the current chairman of the supervisory board of Russian Machines, there is more than meets the eye, claim sources. They mention that Wolf is by no means the only interested party. A consortium around KeKelit owner Karl Egger also has a plan for the continuation with the idea of creating a ‘Green Mobility Center’. In addition, the owners of the Tatra Group have shown great interest. Something, which is understood when one looks back at the rich history that saw Hans Ledwinka, now remembered as one of the great automobile engineers of the twentieth century, and Ferdinand Porsche, being associated. Though Dr. Martin Rabe, Chief Human Resources Officer and Labor Director at MAN Truck & Bus, in the statement released by his company has expressed that the plans presented together with WSA to save the site would have offered many employees and apprentices a future perspective at the site, doubts are being cast about the motive of the MAN top management in Munich. The situation, inform sources, is being portrayed such that it is either Wolf or closure.

Beginning to make automobiles post 1918, Steyr changed its name to Steyr-Werke AG in 1926. In 1934, it merged with Austro-Daimler-Puch to form Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG. Building diesel engined trucks and buses, small and heavy tractors and also passenger car (the Fiat 1100 and 1400) after WWII, the company in 1987, began selling portions of its different production lines to form separate companies. This included Steyr Nutzfahrzeuge AG (“Steyr Commercial Vehicles”, SNF; still based in Steyr) for truck manufacturing; Steyr Bus GmbH (in Vienna) for bus manufacturing; Steyr-Daimler-Puch Fahrzeugtechnik AG (SFT) and the Eurostar JV in Graz-Liebenau for assembly of automobiles and, in 1990, Steyr Tractor (Steyr Landmaschinentechnik AG). With Some MAN trucks still available with ‘Steyr’ branding for the Austrian market, a voice is rising about all parties involved to return to the negotiating table. The President of the Federation of Industrialists, Georg Knill, is known to express that there is a need for a clever and, above all, economically sustainable solution. He is also aver that the plant is of overriding economic and social importance for the entire region.

Of the opinion that an opportunity through further discussions should be definitely used to save the Steyr location from closing down, Knill, cite sources, is keen to see that the current discussion is guided by objectivity and not by short-sighted emotions or actionism. Highlighting that fact that international competitiveness is highly important, the developments at Steyr also indicate that a clever industrial policy must in place to create appropriate conditions and incentives for international groups of companies to invest and generate employment. Drawing attention to Knill’s expression that instead of talking about nationalization fantasies, the relief of the tax and contribution rate including ancillary wage costs, and – how we can achieve an internationally acceptable level here – should be the priority issue, an industry source said that the MAN site should be saved from closing down as it would take thousands of jobs with it.  He further pointed at the latest study by University Professor Dr. Friedrich Schneider, economist at the Johannes Keppler University, Linz, and scientific director of the Upper Austria Business Location Initiative, which puts into perspective the economic consequences of a possible closure of the MAN plant with an econometrically estimated simulation model for Austria.

Taking into account the first and second round effects and depicting Austria’s economy in a comprehensive way, the study by Dr. Schneider is claimed to highlight that a domestic effective added value of Euro 737 million would cease to exist should the plant close down. It would lead in Austria to a decline in GDP of Euro 957 million and a loss of 8,400 jobs, including those at the MAN plant. Stating that the closure of MAN Steyr plant will signal the death of a part of Austria’s rich industrial heritage associating automobiles – commercial vehicles in particular, the industry source mentioned that it will also see one of the last manufacturing (industrial) companies in the region and the country disappear.  With ninety-four percent of the factory’s 2,356 workers taking part in the voting process, 1,415 workers (64 per cent) voted against the sale. Twenty-seven votes were invalid, and 773 voted in favour. Those who voted in favour are claimed to do so by being irritated and fearing the loss of their jobs. There hopes to continue working in a new company may be short lived, claimed the source. He said that there is no guarantee that the new management will retain old employees and how many of them.

After a decade and a half long stint in India, MAN decided to exit in 2018. It was announced to be a part of a new strategy to globally focus on the premium segment. Creating Traton AG as a commercial vehicle subsidiary, which has reported a rise in preliminary sales revenue by 15 per cent on the prior-year period at Euro 6.5 billion, the Volkswagen Group announced a broader restructuring in 2020. With its after-sales service network said to be running apart from the R&D center, MAN’s exit from India is claimed to be on its inability to gain much market share and make money. The Pithampur, Indore, manufacturing plant of the company has been sold to be its erstwhile JV partner Force Motors, sources mention. The medium and heavy trucks made by MAN in India were sold in domestic market as well as exported to the Far East Asian markets, African markets and some others.