kw and Daf both increase '85 profits
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IVECO and Dal are both reporting improved sales and profit performance.
lveco's worldwide sales of vehicles at 3.5 tonnes and above last year totalled 98,000, 7,000 up on the 1984 figure.
Announcing these sales results in Geneva last week, Tomislav Maksirnovic, lyeco's export manager for Europe, said the Fiat Commercial vehicle division had returned to profit last year, and so had all its European subsidiaries.
CM last week reported that Iveco Magirus, the West German company, boosted sales and profits.
Insisting that lveco has "declared war on the price war in recent years", Maksimovic said: "The fact that our share of the European market rose from 14.8 to 15 per cent shows that the customer doesn't buy discounts."
Compared with 1984, the total European market for vehicles at 3.5 tonnes and above last year was three per cent up at 480,000.
Maksimovic described 1985 from the point of view of an exporter front Europe as "a black year", with all European manufacturers being hit by falling demand in African and Middle Eastern markets.
He is particularly pleased with having won an Algerian government contract for 3,100 vehicles which was a "major contribution" to his company's "satisfactory export performance".
Questioned about the 1veco/Ford talks, Maksimovic confirmed that they were taking place, hut said that no conclusion was expected to he reached until the spring at die earliest.
Figures just released by Dal Trucks show that net profit rose from 9.7 million Guilders (2.4 million) to 20 million Guilders 03 million), with the number built rising from 13,645 trucks and buses in 1984 to 14,382.
It built substantially fewer military vehicles, but held on to its 6.8 per cent share of the Western European market for trucks over nine tonnes GVW, which grew by 2.5 per cent.
A crude division of the profits by the number of vehicles built shows that the profit per vehicle has risen from £180 to 050. While this shows how slender profit margins are. it compares well with Renault Vehicles Industriels' 1984 loss of 0,000 per vehicle.
Dal's Special Products unit, which makes non-truck equipment, grew by 20 per cent and produced landing gear for military and civilian aircraft. Daf Trucks Finance made a "positive contribution" to the company's overall results.
The company's chairman, Aart van der Padt, says it anticipates a slight improvement in the Western European truck market this year and improved sales and profits.