Boeing, Airbus fret over effects of trade war
▶ Chinese J-20 aircraft on display at aviation industry showpiece
The world’s two largest plane makers signaled on Tuesday that they were keen to see an end to a bruising trade war between the US and China, as China opened its largest air show with a display that showcased its aviation ambitions.
Boeing and Airbus made their comments on the opening day of the biennial Airshow China, being held in the coastal city of Zhuhai in South China’s Guangdong Por vince from Tuesday to Sunday.
China has become a key hunting ground for deals for foreign aviation firms thanks to the surging travel demand, but the outlook has been complicated as its ties with the US have in particular been strained.
US President Donald Trump criticizes China for what he sees as intellectual property theft, entry barriers for US business and a gaping trade deficit, while China calls the complaints unreasonable.
The two sides have resorted to titfor-tat tariffs on goods worth billions of dollars.
While the US-made aircraft, among America’s biggest exports to China, have so far escaped retaliative tariffs, analysts said they were still waiting to see what the trade war would spell out for US companies such as Boeing.
George Xu, the top China executive at Boeing’s biggest rival Airbus, said at a news conference that the European plane-maker did not expect a sales windfall from the tensions.
“I am Chinese and we don’t like this kind of trade war,” he said. “Nobody will be the winner in this kind of trade war.”
Airbus had hoped to close a deal for 184 aircrafts during a trip to China by French President Emmanuel Macron in January, but negotiations appear to have stalled, industry sources say.
In carefully worded comments, Boeing’s senior vice president of Northeast Asia sales, Rick Anderson, said China was a rapidly growing aviation market and that he believed both China and the US understood that.
“We continue to engage with leaders of the US and China, and continue to urge productive conversation to resolve the trade discrepancies,” he said.
“We are optimistic for a quick solution.”
Ambition on display
China and the US have in recent days stoked optimism that a breakthrough might be made, after Trump spoke by phone with top Chinese leader last week.
Also, the two countries will hold a delayed top-level security dialogue on Friday.
Still, China has shown little sign of taming its ambitions to catch up with rivals like the US, France and Germany in high-end technology.
Some projects being showcased in Zhuhai included a full-scale mock-up of a widebody CR929 jet that is being jointly developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in hopes of eventually competing with Boeing’s 787 and Airbus’ A350 jets.
The global market for wide-body jets is estimated to be worth $2.5 trillion over the next two decades, according to Boeing, with the fleet size more than doubling to 9,180 jets.
Widebodies account for around 20 percent of projected global jet deliveries over that period but almost 40 percent by value, according to Boeing’s report.
Hundreds of spectators and industry executives at the air show were also treated to a roaring flight demonstration that involved three of China’s Chengdu J-20 stealth fighters, which debuted at the show two years ago with a 60-second flypast.
China put the J-20 into service last year and experts say that is a part of country’s plan to narrow a military technology gap with the US and its F-35 stealth fighter.
Sophisticated anti-aircraft batteries were also on display.