Airbus 320 - Made in China!!!
The aircraft manufacturer Airbus unveiled its first assembly plant outside Europe yesterday as it sought to make headway in the heavily targeted Chinese market.
By Richard Spencer, in Tianjin
Last Updated: 6:29PM BST 28 Sep 2008
The venture, in the port city of Tianjin south east of Beijing, is working on its first A-320 aircraft, due for delivery to Sichuan Airlines in the middle of next year.
The company intends to increase production to four aircraft a month by 2011, a significant proportion of the sales it expects to make in China and around 10pc of total production.
But the plant’s launch, delayed until after the Olympics, comes at a bad time, with airline growth stalling even in China as the industry is hit by international economic turmoil.
The world’s biggest aircraft leasing company, ILFC, is currently looking for a buyer after its parent, the American insurance group AIG, had to be bailed out by the US government two weeks ago.
John Leahy, chief operating officer, said major Chinese airlines were finding financing more difficult as a result of the international credit crisis and tight controls this year on credit from the state-owned domestic banking system.
“The world financial markets are definitely tighter now than they were,” he said.
The decision to put an assembly plant in China is carefully calculated.
Unlike most “outsourcing”, initial costs will be higher than manufacturing at existing plants in Toulouse and Hamburg.
Additional costs are imposed by the high proportion of expatriate employees and the cost of training the Chinese employees from scratch, mostly in Europe.
However, Airbus feels that the added bonus of being close to the Chinese market, which favours such loyalty, will pay off.
All big three airlines operating from the Chinese mainland - Air China, China Southern and China Eastern - are state run.
Airbus estimates that China will buy 3,000 airliners in the next 20 years.
The aircraft manufacturer Airbus unveiled its first assembly plant outside Europe yesterday as it sought to make headway in the heavily targeted Chinese market.
By Richard Spencer, in Tianjin
Last Updated: 6:29PM BST 28 Sep 2008
The venture, in the port city of Tianjin south east of Beijing, is working on its first A-320 aircraft, due for delivery to Sichuan Airlines in the middle of next year.
The company intends to increase production to four aircraft a month by 2011, a significant proportion of the sales it expects to make in China and around 10pc of total production.
But the plant’s launch, delayed until after the Olympics, comes at a bad time, with airline growth stalling even in China as the industry is hit by international economic turmoil.
The world’s biggest aircraft leasing company, ILFC, is currently looking for a buyer after its parent, the American insurance group AIG, had to be bailed out by the US government two weeks ago.
John Leahy, chief operating officer, said major Chinese airlines were finding financing more difficult as a result of the international credit crisis and tight controls this year on credit from the state-owned domestic banking system.
“The world financial markets are definitely tighter now than they were,” he said.
The decision to put an assembly plant in China is carefully calculated.
Unlike most “outsourcing”, initial costs will be higher than manufacturing at existing plants in Toulouse and Hamburg.
Additional costs are imposed by the high proportion of expatriate employees and the cost of training the Chinese employees from scratch, mostly in Europe.
However, Airbus feels that the added bonus of being close to the Chinese market, which favours such loyalty, will pay off.
All big three airlines operating from the Chinese mainland - Air China, China Southern and China Eastern - are state run.
Airbus estimates that China will buy 3,000 airliners in the next 20 years.
