September 28, 2010
Chongqing's 20 Billion Yuan Airport
The third terminal of Chongqing's Jiangbei International Airport will employ "third generation" technology and concepts including "passenger enivronment" according to French financial consultancy Sodefinance Capital Markets. The new airport will cost 20 billion Yuan (nearly $3 billion US dollars) and be able to handle 70 million passengers a year making it larger than London's Heathrow airport....
Labels: aerospace, investment
February 02, 2010
Boeing 737 - Airbus A320 - Comac C919
Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China or COMAC debuted the C919 today at the Singapore Air Show. The C919 is China's aerospace industry's challenge to the world's best selling passenger jets, the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Already COMAC claims it has 100 orders for the planes and hopes to sell 2,000 over the next 20 years. With China's recent airplane leasing activity it is possible many airlines may fly the C919 before long. Critics claim the C919 is a way for Chinese airlines to get away from reliance on Boeing, for years the USA's number 1 exporter. Although entirely designed and built in China there are great benefits for US companies to supply C919 production. GE has a multibillion dollar deal to supply engines and Honeywell will supply electronic controls for the cockpits....
Labels: aerospace, aircraft, boeing, foreign trade, jet planes
October 21, 2009
China Buys Euro Aircraft Technologies
The Xi'An Aircraft Industry Group, part of China's AVIC conglomerate, will acquire FACC AG an Austrian company that specializes in composite components. FACC has an active research and development focus and already supplies COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China) as well as Airbus and Boeing. The deal is meant to give Xi'An Aircraft access to FACC's new technologies and potential control over its supply capacity a strategic move as China further develops its aerospace industry....
Labels: aerospace, aircraft, foreign investment
July 22, 2009
COMAC ARJ21 Passenger Jet Flies to Xi'An
Late last week the 3rd and longest flight test of China Commercial Aircraft Corp. (COMAC)'s ARJ21 regional narrow body passenger jet was completed between the Shanghai assembly plant and an aerospace center in Xi'An where the ARJ21 will be further refined. COMAC says it has 208 orders for the plane and we will be on pace to deliver 30 in 2011 and 50 in 2012. The first airline set to receive the ARJ21 is Kunpeng Airlines, a regional division of Shenzhen Airlines, formerly part-owned by the troubled Mesa Air Group of Arizona.
Production of the ARJ21 is the first step in China's desire to become a competitor in the global aerospace industry. The ARJ21 competes directly with Embraer of Brazil and Bombadier in Canada. The later stage of the planned evolution is for Chinese big aircraft to be a "big 3" alongside Boeing and Airbus. Development of China's aerospace industry is a win for global business. The ARJ21 supply chain includes many American firms such as GE, the engine supplier, and Goodrich, United Technologies, Rockwell-Collins, Honeywell, Eaton Aerospace, and Alcoa, among others....
Labels: aerospace, avic, free trade, jet planes
July 21, 2009
Peace Mission 2009 Underway
Joint China-Russia war games begin July 22 in Manchuria. Called "Peace Mission 2009" the games will begin with consultations and strategy sessions in the Russian Far East capital Khabarovsk and then move to Jilin province for anti-terrorist operation exercises involving several thousand troops and Russian and Chinese air power. The first two "Peace Mission" war games were conducted under the guise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The SCO no longer attempts any military alliance, thus the war games are just between Russia and China.
Although unrelated to the war games, the Chinese have revived their plan to produce a Chinese style C-130 transport plane. China has already produced a large number of Y-9 aircraft, modeled on the former Soviet An-12 transport. Each new Y-9 will be able to carry 132 paratroopers or 25 tons of cargo....
Labels: aerospace, defense, war
February 02, 2009
China 1 Wales 0 in Airbus Deal?
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In the presence of the Chinese and UK Prime Ministers, Airbus and Xi'An Aircraft (division of the AVIC conglomerate) signed today a new deal to move final assembly and testing of A320 wings to the new factory in Tianjin. According to EADS (Airbus parent) the A320 wing will now be 'fully completed and tested' in China.
This development seems to contradict the prediction last year by the MP for Broughton, Flintside in Wales (just south of Liverpool) that the new Chinese Airbus assembly plant would not affect jobs in his district. Broughton is home to an Airbus plant that had sole monopoloy on final wing assembly. The plant is the largest industrial employer in Wales. MP Mark Tami had said that wings would still be shipped to Broughton from Tianjin for final assembly and testing. Now it appears all that will occur in China. How does this impact the 7,000 or so jobs in Broughton?
Labels: aerospace, avic, free trade
January 29, 2009
Airbus Avicopter JV Deal for A350 Plant in China
The parent company of Europe's Airbus (EADS) will sign a deal with Chinese aerospace firm Avicopter for a factory in Harbin to produce a special carbon-fiber composite, lighter than aluminum, for the delayed A350 plane when Chinese PM Wen Jiabao leaves Davos for Madrid. The A350 is Airbus's response to the Boeing Dreamliner. This is another blow to Boeing's market share in China...
Labels: aerospace, boeing, jet planes
November 06, 2008
AVIC I & II In Massive Merger of Aerospace Industry
The long anticipated consolidation and reorganization of China's aerospace industries is underway with a huge merger of the AVIC I and AVIC II conglomerates. The new single AVIC will be a temporary holding company with several big entities that most likely will each be spun off as independent public companies. The new AVIC is interested in a foreign acquisition possibly a European maker of small to medium size jet planes and AVIC may issue shares. The new AVIC consists of:
Transport Aircraft Corp.
Indepenent supplier expected to compete with Airbus and Boeing for production of Chinese large jets by CACC (COMAC) - see below.
Will own non-defense AVIC assets in Xi'An, Chengdu, Shenyang
"Defense Division"
All military related assets and production centers.
Assigned defense assets in Chengdu, Shenyang, Xi'An, and the military businesses of the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group.
AVICopter
Helicopter makers in Harbin, Changhe and Jingdezhen and other locations.
Aviation Engine Industry Corp.
Containing engine makers and research centers located in Liming, Xi'An, Chengdu, Zhuzhou, and China Gas Turbine of Jiangyou, Sichuan.
General Aviation Company
Production centers at Guizhou and Shijiazhuang of medium size planes.
Aviation Systems Company
Made up of dozens of prototype factories and research institutes across China including those located in Xi'An, Shanghai, and Nanjing.
Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (CACC)
Will become largely independent and rebranded COMAC.
The company will be the Chinese brand challenger to Boeing and Airbus.
And COMAC just got its first big order - 25 Chinese made ARJ21 jets - from GE.
Watch these businesses in the near to medium future. This is big new competition from China in an industry considered a "first world" prerogative.
Labels: aerospace, aircraft, avic, globalization, jet planes, military-industrial complex
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