Bombardier looking for other C Series customers

China seen as appealing market

With Bombardier Inc.’s ability to sell its C Series jets to the United States effectively halted by a massive 220-per-cent duty, the Montreal-based company is expected to focus its efforts on selling the C Series to other markets as it tries to prevent its five-year turnaround plan from going into a tailspin.

The growth of the previously beleaguered C Series program as well as its transportation group, Bombardier’s most profitable division, are key drivers of the company’s five-year turnaround plan, which began shortly after Bombardier’s chief executive Alain Bellemare was appointed in 2015.

“We think that there is great opportunity for the CSeries in China and our commercial teams are working hard to market the aircraft there,” Bombardier’s commercial aircraft spokesperson Bryan Tucker said in a statement Wednesday.

“We are encouraged by interest in the region.”

National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen said the C Series remains the biggest investor concern and expects that the uncertainty surrounding the Boeing dispute will continue to impact Bombardier’s stock.

Bombardier’s stock plummeted more than 13 per cent after opening Wednesday before closing at $2.10 in Toronto, down 7.5 per cent.

“The CSeries business is probably not viable longer term without access to the U.S. market, but Bombardier may be able to find enough international customers to still ramp up production in the next few years,” Doerkson wrote in a note to clients. “If Bombardier can win a new order for the CSeries from a large airline outside the U.S., we believe much of the anxiety would be alleviated.”

In a preliminary determination released Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce found that Bombardier had received countervailing subsidies and imposed a hefty 219.63-per-cent duty on all imports to the U.S. of the C Series jet, well above the 79.41 per cent requested by the Boeing Co. in its original petition filed in April.

The Department of Commerce will issue a final decision later this year.