Boeing 7E7 contracts go to China

[dArKeR]

BLOOMBERG
Friday, Jun 11, 2004,Page 12

Boeing Co, which is counting on its new 7E7 aircraft to catch up with Airbus SAS, said it has awarded contracts to two Chinese companies to produce parts for the new jetliner.

The world's second-largest maker of commercial aircraft signed a memorandum of understanding with Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Co to make rudders for the 7E7.

Hafei Aviation Industry Co will make metallic and composite parts.

The contracts are worth "hundreds of millions of dollars," Boeing said in a press statement, declining to give specific figures.

Airbus and Boeing are trying to increase sales in China, the world's fastest-growing aviation market.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2004/06/11/2003174640

What's Neil Bush's cut? Junior Bush's cut? Satan Bush's cut?

[will work 4 food]

1. I am sooooo Mad I could

:argh:

[opihimoimoi]

2. Prolly worth about $$65 Billion...them contracts do.

"just a few hundred mil"

[Hobarticus]

3. No surprise here, at all.

What's the aerospace industry been up to since the 'peace dividend' kicked in? Did they really make an effort to crank up their commerical lines again? Last I heard, Airbus took the lead as the world's largest aircraft manufacturer.

Much as I'd like to blame the usual suspects, I think this kind of thing is more likely due to ineptitude.

[fortyfeetunder]

4. read the Boing position

they claim their customers want a piece of the manufacturing pie. Also Boing wants to be a "large scale systems integrator" and just building parts doesn't cut it (or make money for them) anymore. But I hope their plans don't backfire...end going up in smoke like a "bong"

[kysrsoze]

5. Would you seriously rather have them go under? Wake up.

Sheesh. Airbus is a cooperative of a bunch of European manufacturers. I just watched a show on the new A380 and parts of the plane are built in Germany, England and France.

If Boeing has to go with some outsourcing to China to sell more planes to China, what is the big deal? It's not as if they're building the whole stinkin' plane in China. It's RUDDERS. Like it or not, we live in a world economy and you have to do these types of things to stay competitive.

[punpirate]

7. Could be they're not making enough money to satisfy...

... some very greedy investors. The 767 rudders were built in Australia.

Boeing has been using the need to be competitive excuse for quite a while. The simple facts are that they've been laying off people left and right, engaging in some very shady practices with defense contracts, and generally behaving as if the government and the country owes their investors a living.

And, it's not just rudders--the article states spare parts, machined, composite and otherwise.

Strategically, it's also a bad practice. Any flare-up in tensions between Taiwan and mainland China in which the US decides to involve itself, for example, could result in an interruption of manufacturing and/or spare parts deliveries. If customers can't fly the plane for lack of spares, guess who gets the business next time?

Airbus is a consortium project amongst EU countries generally friendly to each other, so the supply of parts coming from within that EU consortium are likely to be very stable. And, funny thing--Germany, England and France have pretty good standards of living, and they can still produce the Airbus to be competitive--without outsourcing major components to the Far East... why can't Boeing?

Cheers.

[kysrsoze]

8. I don't like Boeing's defense contracts......

but I'll guarantee you that a lot of the parts on the Airbus planes have a lot of Asian parts on them. And Airbus has been absolutely killing Boeing in sales. This is more or less Boeing's last chance. When they outsource half the plane to China, I'll start worrying.

After chiding Boeing, you can also jump on the U.S. automakers for building American cars in Mexico, and using over 50 parts on "American" cars and trucks. They've done far worse than Boeing in terms of outsourcing. They also have been cozying up to the unions and refusing to build/import high-mileage cars available in Europe and the Far East - to the long-term detriment of those same workers.

[Dover]

6. Cheaper may be better for some products...but NOT airplanes!!!

:scared:

Sorry, I don't want my plane to be stamped "Made In China".

[kysrsoze]

9. OMG! You've got to be kidding

This is a joke, right? Do you know how many of our electronics are made in China? Most of them. How about Korea, for that matter? Hyundai is now tops in midsize car quality. I'm not saying we should outsource everything, but again it is a fact of life if you want to globally compete.

[jmcgowanjm]

10. Boeing hoping, Airbus getting

 Airbus, the European aircraft maker based in the French city
of Toulouse, announced it had inked a two-billion-
dollar (1.7-billion-euro) deal to supply 20 medium- and long-
haul A330-300 planes to the China Eastern
airline.
    And the aerospace subsidiary of the
French telecommunications group Alcatel said it had sold
a television satellite to the company China Sat to be
operational in time for the 2008 Olympic Games in
Beijing.

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