Berlin - German premium-car rivals BMW and Daimler are mulling plans to combine more of their parts purchasing operations, including industrial buying in China and the United States, a news report said Wednesday.

Together, the two companies can exert heavy pressure on supplier companies to obtain lower prices for components.

In its Thursday issue, the newspaper Handelsblatt was to quote BMW chief purchasing officer Herbert Diess saying, "we are talking about bundling our purchasing activities in certain markets such as China and the United States."

They had identified a "double digit number" of components suitable, he said.

The rival companies have been in a year of talks on jointly negotiating for components and were already buying some parts jointly, sources quoted by Handelsblatt said.

The items to be bought jointly would include seat-belt retraction systems and air-conditioning units.

Handelsblatt quoted the sources saying BMW and the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks believed they could save 350 million euros (440 million dollars) in the first year alone by teaming up to obtain deeper discounts. (dpa)