MAN to put DM 20 billion into modernizing truck plant

Later this year, German enterprise MAN Nutzfarzeuge (MAN) plans to invest DM20 billion in truck plant StarTrucks in Starachowice, which it acquired in December 1999. The money will be spent on modernizing the plant, renovating machinery and educating workers. MAN management board president Klaus Schubert says the plant would be mainly used for production of electric wiring and car electronics. He also said the former StarTrucks' factory would become an assembly plant. MAN is aiming to acquire a 40% share of the Polish market for trucks weighing between 10 tonnes and 16 tonnes. StarTrucks also plans to export 500 vehicles per year and increase its revenue from sales of spare parts to zl. 60 million by 2001. "One-hundred thousand StarTrucks vehicles are driven on Polish roads and we are planning for their owners to exchange their old vehicles for our new products," said Schubert. Employment at the Starachowice plant should be 1,152 by 2004. (Rzeczpospolita, page B2, June 10-11, page 2) M.M.