Airbus Inks 160 Aircraft Deal in China, to Open New Assembly Line in Tianjin

[beijingwalker]

Airbus Inks 160 Aircraft Deal in China, to Open New Assembly Line in Tianjin​

Apr 07, 2023, 11:04am

airbus-a320-family-final-assembly-line-in-tianjin

On April 6, Airbus, a European aircraft manufacturer, announced that it had signed an agreement with a Chinese partner to purchase 160 commercial aircraft. As part of the expansion into the country, Airbus will also be opening a second assembly line in Tianjin, a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China.

During French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to China, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury signed an agreement with Tianjin Free Trade Zone Investment Co Ltd and Aviation Industry Corp of China Ltd. The agreement aims to expand the A320 family final assembly capacity by adding a second line at its site in Tianjin. This new line is expected to be operational by the end of 2025 and will help Airbus achieve its goal of producing 75 A320 family aircraft per month globally by 2026.

Airbus has signed an agreement with China Aviation Supplies Holding Co (CAS) for the purchase of 160 commercial aircraft, comprising 150 A320 family aircraft and 10 A350-900 wide-body aircraft. The total value of these orders is estimated to be around $20 billion, as reported by CAS.

According to Airbus, China’s air transport volume is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.3% over the next two decades, surpassing the global average of 3.6%. This growth is projected to result in a demand for 8,420 passenger and cargo aircraft in China by 2041, which accounts for more than 20% of the total global demand (approximately 39,500).

According to Jiemian News, Airbus signed a procurement agreement with CAS instead of an airline company because CAS typically coordinates the introduction of new aircraft in China.

In July of last year, Airbus received orders from three state-owned airlines in China for a total of almost 300 A320neo narrow-body aircraft. The basic prices for these orders were approximately $12.213 billion, $12.796 billion, and $12.248 billion respectively. Now, after nearly 10 months have passed, Airbus has secured another order for 160 aircraft in the Chinese market.

Since China eased its epidemic restrictions in January of this year, the international aviation market has experienced a significant recovery. The Civil Aviation Administration of China recently announced at a press conference that 2,021 international passenger flights were operated during the last week of March. As a result, airlines must update and replace their outdated planes and reserve capacity in advance to accommodate more international routes.

When we reflect on Airbus’ development in China, it is evident that its growth rate has been rapid. In 2005, Airbus proposed to establish the first assembly line outside of Europe in Tianjin. At that time, their market share in China was just under 20%. However, after completing the first assembly line and finding local solutions within a decade, Airbus’ market share in China increased significantly to over 50%, as stated by Faury.

Airbus Inks 160 Aircraft Deal in China, to Open New Assembly Line - Pandaily

On April 6, Airbus, a European aircraft manufacturer, announced that it had signed an agreement with a Chinese partner to purchase 160 commercial aircraft. As part of the expansion into the country, Airbus will also be opening a second assembly line in Tianjin.

pandaily.com

 

[beijingwalker]

Airbus to open second aircraft assembly line in China: CEO​

 

[beijingwalker]

Airbus widens its lead over Boeing in China with plans for second finishing line​

By Chris Isidore, CNN
Updated 2:53 AM EDT, Fri April 7, 2023
New YorkCNN —

Airbus announced plans Thursday for a second final-assembly line in China, the latest sign that it has a lock on the key aviation market over rival Boeing.

The announcement came as part of a state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to China. The signing of the agreement by Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury was witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and by Macron.

It will add another line to the final-assembly facility that Airbus opened in Tianjin, China, in 2008, which has put the final touches on 600 A320 aircraft to date.
Airbus (EADSF) operates four assembly sites around the world but it forecasts that China’s air traffic in particular will grow 5.3% annually over the next 20 years, significantly faster than the world average of 3.6%.

This will lead to a demand for 8,420 passenger and freighter aircraft between now and 2041, representing more than 20% of the world’s total demand for new aircraft, Airbus predicts.

Boeing (BA) has similar forecasts for China’s aircraft demand.

Soured trade relations​

But worsening trade relations between the United States and China have basically locked Boeing out of that key market for aircraft. Thursday’s deal includes the sale of another 160 Airbus aircraft to China, where more than 2,100 are in service already.

Boeing has not reported an order for a commercial passenger plane from a Chinese airline since 2017, only for orders from Chinese aircraft leasing companies that could be buying them on behalf of buyers outside of China, or for freighter aircraft, a segment of the market that Boeing dominates.

And deliveries to Chinese customers by Boeing have plunged. So far this year it has delivered only one 777 freighter to China Air Cargo, and there were only 12 jets delivered in 2022: eight freighters and four to a leasing company.

In 2017, the year the Trump administration first levied tariffs on US imports of Chinese goods, sparking a tit-for-tat trade tiff, Boeing delivered 161 jets to China, and slightly more in the following year. But with the 737 Max grounding and the pandemic causing a sharp fall off in demand for air travel, Boeing deliveries to China plunged to 45 in 2019, and to 27 in the three-plus years since then.

Boeing’s best selling plane, the 737 Max, which is a competitor to the A320 family that Airbus is finishing in China, has had trouble re-entering the Chinese market following a 20-month grounding that started in March of 2019 following two fatal crashes that killed a total of 346 people.


China was one of the last countries to allow the plane to fly in its airspace once again, and, even with that clearance, none of the Chinese customers of the plane have accepted deliveries of the 138 Boeing built for them during the grounding that are still sitting in the aircraft maker’s inventory. Boeing has been forced to try to find other buyers for some of those aircraft at discounted prices.

The 737 Max has been losing the competition with the A320 family outside of China as well, but it’s not the total shutout that Boeing is experiencing in China.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has said all Boeing can do is wait and hope for relations between the two countries to improve so it can again start making substantial sales and deliveries in China.

“My hope is that these two big geopolitical forces get together and endorse free trade again … so that they can take more deliveries of airplanes,” Calhoun told investors in October.
“But it’s really hard for me to find signals that things are going to change in China and move in our direction,” he added.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/06/business/airbus-china-boeing-lockout/index.html

 

[beijingwalker]

Airbus to open 2nd plane assembly line in China, double output​

AFP Published April.10 2023

BEIJING: European planemaker Airbus said Thursday that it will double its production capacity in China, as it seeks to bolster its footprint in a crucial market and sidestep potential geopolitical risks.

Asia and China in particular are key targets for both Airbus and its American rival Boeing, which are looking to capitalise on surging demand for air travel by a rapidly expanding middle class.

“It makes a lot of sense for us, as the Chinese market keeps growing, to be serving local for the Chinese airlines, and probably some other customers in the region,” Guillaume Faury said during a trip to China, where he is accompanying French President Emmanuel Macron.

Faury later signed a framework agreement to build a second final assembly line (FAL) at its factory in Tianjin, northeast China, for Airbus’s hugely popular A320 family of medium-haul jets, at a ceremony attended by Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The new assembly line will begin operations in late 2025.

“It’s a way to be probably more in sync with the way the world is developing, with tensions and with more complexities of doing business,” Faury said.

“We are delivering more planes in China than what we can produce in China, but the lines are capable of serving other customers,” he added.

The new Chinese site was part of Airbus’s goal of raising its global annual production of A320 and A321 jets to 75 a month in 2026, up from 43 last year.

The company has an order backlog of around 7,300 planes, with customers often having to wait years for delivery.

Airbus’s first assembly site in Tianjin, opened in 2008, is turning out four A320s a month, and the company aims to up that to six a month this year.

China is also pouring money into state-run manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), which is developing a narrow-bodied C919 jet to potentially rival Airbus’s A320 and Boeing’s B737.

In the meantime, Chinese carriers are big plane buyers, with Air China, China Eastern, China Southern and Shenzen Airlines announcing last July an order of 292 A320s.

The Chinese market represents one-fifth of global passenger air traffic, and Airbus expects growth of 5.3 percent a year through 2041, well above the 3.6 percent growth forecast at the global level.

Airbus to open 2nd plane assembly line in China, double output

BEIJING: European planemaker Airbus said Thursday that it will double its production capacity in China, as it seeks...

www.brecorder.com

 

[beijingwalker]

Boeing is eating its heart out

 

[VCheng]

Boeing is eating its heart out

Could you please tell us how you determined Boeing's cardiac status? Thanks.

 

[beijingwalker]

Could you please tell us how you determined Boeing's cardiac status? Thanks.

Boeing has plenty of other troubles in China, the world’s largest aviation market.In 2017 and 2018 China accounted for more than 20% of Boeing’s global deliveries, but since the start of 2020 the percentage has dropped to below 5%. . (Boeing gets most of its revenue when a plane is delivered.)

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/27/business/boeing-china-problems/index.html

 

[VCheng]

May be Boeing has decided not to sell to China and concentrate on other markets. What is the cardiac issue here? Meh.

From the same story linked above:

"Some experts believe Boeing has reached agreements to sell some planes to Chinese airlines in the last four years, either through a leasing company or via sales in which the name of the buyer is not made public. But no aircraft orders are official without approval from the Chinese government, which views plane sales as leverage in its negotiations with the United States on overall trade issues, said Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst with AeroDynamic Advisory."

 

[beijingwalker]

May be Boeing has decided not to sell to China and concentrate on other markets. What is the cardiac issue here? Meh.

Good decision by Boeing then. I guess the percentage will keep dropping with this decision.

 

[VCheng]

Good decision by Boeing then.

Of course. China's communist government wants to use Boeing as leverage as the story mentions above. It will fail in this endeavor.

 

[beijingwalker]

Of course. China's communist government wants to use Boeing as leverage as the story mentions above. It will fail in this endeavor.

It's all up to themselves, Tesla just decided to build a new megafactory in China, no one forced Musk to do so.

 

[VCheng]

It's all up to themselves, Tesla just decided to build a new megafactory in China, no one forced Musk to do so.

Of course. Private companies decide here what is best for them, not like in China, where decisions are made for them.

 

[etylo]

Boeing airplanes are more or less junk quality now with their safety problems in recent years. Chinese air companies are not likely to order any more until Boeing fix their safety problems and the strategic relation between US and China improves. Until then, China will keep ordering Airbus airplanes alone.

 

[beijingwalker]

Of course. Private companies decide here what is best for them, not like in China, where decisions are made for them.

This remark only shows how stupid you are again. but sometimes I wonder if you are really this stupid or you just like to troll?

 

[VCheng]

Boeing airplanes are more or less junk quality now with their safety problems in recent years. Chinese air companies are not likely to order any more until Boeing fix their safety problems and the strategic relation between US and China improves. Until then, China will keep ordering Airbus airplanes alone.

And yet Boeing keeps on making better and better planes, so clearly the problems are fixed. And new problems, if any are found, will be fixed too. That is how products improve. The strategic relations, or the lack thereof, between China and USA cannot make that process its hostage.

This remark only shows how stupid you are again. but sometimes I wonder if you are really this stupid or you just like to troll?

What part of that comment is incorrect?