German MAN truck eyes bigger slice of Russian truck market

German truckmaker MAN aims to expand its share of the booming Russian market for heavy commercial vehicles and close the gap with Swedish rivals Volvo and Scania, MAN said on Wednesday.

The company is targeting a share of 24 percent this year of the import truck market that is dominated by western European brands, up from 22 percent in 2007.

"Russia has become an important engine for further growth of the MAN group," Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said at the opening of its Russia headquarters in Moscow.

In order to achieve its target, the company planned to increase the number of sales partners in Russia to 40 from 25 this year and eventually to have 100 in the Commonwealth of Independent States by 2010.

About 20,300 trucks were imported into Russia from western Europe last year and the country's overall market for trucks weighing at least 6 tonnes grew by almost a quarter to 126,000 vehicles.

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