THE global motor industry re-alignment continues with news that Germany's Daimler-Benz, merging with Chrysler of the US, is in the early stage of negotiations with Nissan over commercial vehicle operations.
Meanwhile, speculation is rife that BMW may yet come back with an improvement to its #340m offer for Rolls-Royce Motors, which was topped last week by a #430m bid from German rival Volkswagen.
With Chrysler chairman Bob Eaton hinting that he was aware of six further sets of significant negotiations already under way, there would appear to be several more major revelations to come.
Discussions between General Motors and Daewoo, on the one hand, and Ford and Kia and Samsung on the other are well publicised.
Nissan, which is Japan's second-largest carmaker, con-firmed yesterday that it was in talks on an alliance with Daimler-Benz covering trucks and other commercial vehicles.
This may expand to include other areas like cars or even to involve some form of equity participation.
But it remains to be seen whether the alliance will go far enough to resolve Nissan's problems and bring some badly needed consolidation to Japan's motor sector.
Nissan was prompted to make an announcement after Japanese newspapers reported over the weekend that it was in talks to sell Daimler the bulk of its controlling 39.8% stake in Nissan Diesel, which is the smallest of Japan's 11 motor manufacturers.
Nissan Motor and Nissan Diesel said in a joint statement that they had been discussing with Daimler the possibility of a business tie-up involving the development, production and sales of commercial vehicles and components.
''There is a possibility that a co-operative business relationship will extend beyond the aforementioned areas of co-operation as the talks develop,'' a statement added.
Mounting losses and drastic restructuring measures at Nissan Diesel, whose sales at home and in South-east Asia fell sharply in recent months, have become an increasing burden for Nissan Motor, which itself is struggling with losses in the key US market and sluggish business in Japan.
Meanwhile, in the light of all this activity, both of France's car manufacturers are look-
ing small and increasingly
vulnerable.
A merger between Renault and Peugeot Citroen, while preserving French control over the industry, would risk big job losses because the groups overlap, both generating the bulk of their sales in the small and mid-sized car sectors and in the same countries, with a heavy reliance on southern Europe.
A merger could not even be guaranteed to preserve their combined volumes, it is argued by industry analysts.
Between them, Renault and the Peugeot group sold nearly four million vehicles last year, compared with Volkswagen's 4.3 million and close to three million units sold by Italy's Fiat.
Analysts speculating on the next wave of mergers said that Fiat, or one of Japan's mid-sized manufacturers, might be a good fit for one of the French companies.
Sweden's Volvo would still be a suitable partner for Renault, they said, but the two companies would be unlikely to get back together after the acrimonious 1993 collapse of their previous merger plan.
Analysts have not, however, ruled out a deal between their truck businesses because the industrial logic is compelling.
Renault VI is too small, and Volvo Trucks is too European and would do well to get its hands on Renault's US-based Mack Trucks.
Volvo reaffirmed its strategy last week to go it alone in the car business, and Fiat chairman Cesare Romiti told reporters on Saturday that the company did not need a partner.
In the past, it has been in talks with Chrysler, Citroen and Ford.
A spokeswoman for the Peugeot group reiterated that its strategy was to pursue co-operative agreements in components and small series vehicles, like its transmission venture with Renault and the light commercial vehicle venture it has undertaken with Fiat.
That is also the strategy at Renault.
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