FRANKFURT, March 25 (Reuters) - German trucks and engineering group MAN said on Tuesday it had started the year with a slight increase in sales but a drop in new orders, hit by weak business in its main domestic market.
MAN said new orders for the first two months of the year had fallen five percent to 2.205 billion euros ($2.35 billion), with the weakest order activity in Germany, although group sales rose three percent to 1.969 billion.
"Taking the group as a whole, our budgeting envisages stagnating business volumes compared with 2002," MAN Chief Executive Rudolf Rupprecht told a news conference. "We nevertheless anticipate a sustained improvement in earnings."
MAN said at the start of the month its recovering trucks business would drive group profits higher this year as it reaps the benefit of restructuring, although the extent of the rise would depend on the timing and momentum of an economic upswing.