TRATON Lays Out Supply-Chain Resilience Strategy After Hormuz Blockade
After the Strait of Hormuz blockade cut oil supplies, TRATON is realigning procurement with dual sourcing, decoupling, and real-time tracking to keep truck production moving through crises.
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What Happened
A global supply chain is like a finely woven worldwide net, and one blocked strait can sever important connections. During the recent Middle East crisis, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz interrupted essential routes overnight, and European oil reserves at TRATON's Scania and MAN visibly declined. The TRATON team jointly began looking for alternatives under the group's resilience strategy.
Commercial vehicles are built from thousands of parts and materials, including semiconductors, batteries, and electronic components, and more than 90 percent of these come from suppliers around the world. A single missing part can stop a production line, which is expensive and can lead to delivery delays, contractual penalties, and customer complaints. For TRATON, resilience means being proactive and also able to react on short notice to disruptions through multiple suppliers, alternative transport routes, and stockpiling parts inventories. Procurement now has a broader scope because of the unstable geopolitical situation, but this complements cost efficiency rather than conflicting with it, balancing technology, quality, cost, delivery, and sustainability (TQDCS). People are the basis and enabler that turn those value drivers into reality.
“The greatest risks within the supply chain arise from external disruptions: geopolitical conflicts can lead to trade barriers and interrupt supply routes. Natural disasters such as fires and flooding can have impact on both production sites as well as infrastructure. As the supply chain is lean and sometimes based on sequence deliveries, shortages of parts and components will delay production.”
Nowadays, external disruption risks and instances occur more frequently, and since 2020 external disruptions and global crises have intensified and multiplied, so procurement can no longer rely solely on maximum efficiency. The switch to battery-electric trucks creates new dependencies on batteries and rare raw materials such as lithium, whose availability is sometimes concentrated in only a few regions. Manufacturers must also meet regulatory requirements on greenhouse gas emissions along the supply chain, European fleet CO2 targets, and ESG expectations such as monitoring emissions, ethical raw material sourcing, and environmental compliance at suppliers. Bernqvist says TRATON has realigned procurement around a balanced set of value drivers where resilience and security of supply are key, using a holistic end-to-end approach, local knowledge from a global network, trust and partnerships, regular supplier exchange, close coordination between brands, and a synchronized procurement organization that pools resources.
- Dual sourcing: when commercially and technically possible, nominate at least two suppliers from different countries and regions
- Decoupling: separate suppliers for regions with geopolitical tensions such as tariffs (for example, China and the US)
- Sourcing decisions always consider TQDCS (Technology, Quality, Delivery, Cost, Sustainability), including supply chain risk management
- Proactivity, supplier monitoring and real-time tracking
Digitalization is becoming an increasingly important tool for transparency. With real-time tracking, predictive analytics, and comprehensive supplier risk monitoring, TRATON says risks can be anticipated both when contracts are awarded and during series supply, helping the brands Scania, MAN, International, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus react quickly. The group is embedded in Volkswagen's global supply chain risk network and receives a 'Strategic and Risk Analytics' weather report so experts can take preventive measures when severe weather is impending. The TRATON Modular System works like a modular kit: the four subsidiaries share components and standardized interfaces produced worldwide, allowing critical parts to be procured flexibly at multiple sites, while flexible production lets brands shift manufacturing capacity as needed and lowers the risk of regional supply fluctuations. During the Middle East crisis, a group-wide task force from R&D, procurement, and aftersales developed tailored measures - alternative oil formulations, additional suppliers for base oils, and alternative transport routes - and the solutions are now in place.
“For the TRATON GROUP, supply chain resilience isn't just an operational matter - it's strategically decisive. It prevents production stoppages, safeguards our technology transformation, supports regulatory compliance, creates lasting competitive advantages and helps us achieve our overarching target - 100 percent customer satisfaction.”
Why this matters
Commercial trucks rely on thousands of parts from suppliers in many countries, so one blocked waterway or natural disaster can halt a line and trigger delays, penalties, and complaints. TRATON says resilience is now strategically decisive, not just an operational concern, and it affects component suppliers in politically tense regions as well as buyers of Scania, MAN, International, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus vehicles. The approach also supports the group's shift to battery-electric trucks, which creates new dependencies on batteries and lithium concentrated in a few regions.
Terms in This Story
- Supply chain
- The network of organizations, activities, and resources that move a product from raw materials to the customer.
- Dual sourcing
- A strategy of using at least two suppliers, often in different regions, for the same part to reduce disruption risk.
- Just-in-time
- A production method where parts arrive exactly when needed, keeping inventory low but leaving little buffer for supply interruptions.
- ESG
- Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria used to evaluate a company's sustainability and ethical impact.
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