Daf hints at component co-operation
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• Daf has hinted that the key to its long-term future may lie not in full co-operation, as attempted lately in its failed bids to acquire Steyr of Austria, and Pegaso of Spain. Instead it is looking at the economies of scale made possible by more widespread co-operation in component manufacture.
Speaking to CM at last week's Paris Motor Show, Daf chairman Aa.rt Van der Padt pointed to the Cabtec joint venture with Pegaso as an example of what can be done: "We are more than ever convinced that it is right to seek co-operation in the field of componentry wherever possible, so that when we start to manufacture a cab, an engine, an axle, or what have you, we make it with the same technology and economies of scale as the big companies. When we achieve that there is no reason why we shouldn't be as competitive. That's our prime objective."
Van der Padt also confirmed the continuation of talks with Navistar of the US, though he seemed to rule out the use of proprietary US components in European Daf models: "Renault tries to use the Mack engine here. We'll see what will happen, but I have my doubts. Volvo tried their engines in the US and it didn't work out. You have to find the co-operative niches that work well: that's what we're doing. I don't know whether we'll succeed."