“It’s also about developing partnerships that have depth and breadth, technical content and substance”, said Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s CEO, at an aerospace conference in Seattle on Tuesday. Chinese operators count with about the 15% of Airbus A330 world fleet, equivalent to over 150 aircraft.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrive Tuesday at Boeing Field in Everett, Wash.
The order was placed on behalf of the Chinese carriers and leasing companies by the China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CASC).
The orders and commitments for 250 single-aisle 737s and 50 widebody jets announced Wednesday carry a list price of about $38 billion. According to Boeing, the Chinese facility will perform finishing work, such as painting, whereas the aircraft would still be manufactured at its Renton facility. China will account for around a quarter of all Boeing deliveries this year. It is also expected to unveil an agreement to open a new facility there that would finish and deliver 737s built at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington.
Boeing Co. will sell 300 aircraft to several Chinese firms and set up an aircraft plant in China, according to a report in Reuters.
In an interview, Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Ray Conner defended the plan, saying “there will be no jobs lost as a result of this work moving”.
“This shows cooperation between Boeing and a Chinese enterprise has been lifted to a major-manufacturer level”, it said in a statement.
Manufacturing airplanes is a symbolic industry for the United States – a feat of advanced engineering, one of the nation’s major exports and a bastion of American manufacturing jobs, many of which have left US shores for China in past decades. “Broadening and deepening our long-term collaboration demonstrates Boeing’s continued commitment to China and our continued trust in AVIC’s ability to meet Boeing’s stringent requirements for high quality and on-time delivery”.
At a mostly closed meeting with 30 Chinese and US CEOs, Xi continued to stress the core message of his visit: that commercial ties between the two countries are essential, and that USA businesses need China and should trust him to advance reforms.
The deal with China today not only serves as a big sale and revenue booster for the company, but also as a benchmark for future business with the country. Boeing will partner with NDRC to turn items from farms, such as corn cobs and wheat stalks, into sustainable jet fuel as a way to reduce aviation’s carbon emissions.
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The record order was announced as Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed about 600 Boeing employees inside an assembly bay at the Everett factory, just north of Seattle, Washington. McDonnell Douglas granted a license to the Shanghai Aviation Industrial Corporation to build MD-80s in China.
