MAN’s Truck Orders Rise; Holds Full-Year Sales Forecast

European truck maker MAN SE's orders rose 10% in the third quarter and the company held to its full-year sales forecast, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Advance contracts rose to 4.1 billion euros ($5.65 billion), Munich-based MAN said in a statement,

Third-quarter operating profit fell 0.9% from a year earlier to 321 million euros ($443 million), Bloomberg reported.

MAN reiterated its 2011 forecast, first made in July, that sales will rise 10% to 15%, with sales at the truck and bus division projected to gain by 15% to 20%.

European truck markets next year may match 2011 levels or even increase slightly, CEO Georg Pachta-Reyhofen said, while industrywide deliveries outside Europe may also have a “good year” in 2012, Bloomberg reported.

Volkswagen AG won European Union antitrust approval on Sept. 26 to take a majority stake in MAN.

VW, the region’s largest automaker, has been pushing for closer cooperation between MAN and Sweden-based Scania with a goal of forging a three-way truck-making alliance, Bloomberg said.