2023-04-25 06:30:43
During the President of the Republic’s recent visit to China in early April, Airbus announced the installation of a second final assembly line for the A320 and A321 at its Tianjin (China) site.
This announcement is nothing out of the ordinary. The European aircraft manufacturer will thus double its aircraft production capacity on Chinese soil, thus putting itself in a position to meet the huge local demand for new aircraft. Also, the Airbus order book is full: No less than 7,300 aircraft to be delivered, and increasingly long waiting times. The announcement made at the beginning of the month should also allow Airbus to ramp up production, and therefore respond more quickly to orders from international customers.
The Tianjin plant, inaugurated in 2008, has since its start-up produced 600 devices, or four per month. The forthcoming installation of a second production line will make it possible to move to a rate of eight devices produced per month, which will make the site the second in terms of production, behind that of Hamburg.
At the same time, Boeing is suffering from the extremely tense geopolitical context between the United States and China. A Chinese company (China Southern Airlines) flew a Boeing 737 MAX once more in the skies of China at the start of the year, almost four years following it was banned from flying in the country following two successive accidents, which cost the life to 346 people. That’s it for the good news. On the commercial side, sales of the American aircraft manufacturer in China are collapsing. In 2022, Boeing delivered 12 aircraft to Chinese customers, compared to 95 for Airbus. A hole. The Chinese state apparatus is aware of the major role it can play in the trade war between the two giants of global aeronautics.
Indeed, the demand for new devices will explode in China in the coming decade. Airbus has estimated this need at 8,500 aircraft over the next twenty years. A godsend therefore for the European aircraft manufacturer, which has already signed several large delivery contracts for the A320 NEO, A320 and A350, with total orders representing several hundred aircraft, produced in part at the Tianjin site.
Indeed, in accordance with an agreement between Airbus and the Chinese government, Chinese airlines are authorized to place orders with the Tianjin plant, to maintain a minimum activity on the site. Everything suggests that Airbus has won the day, leaving Boeing crumbs, and clearly taking a step ahead of its competitor, thanks to Chinese commercial benevolence. If the current situation allows Airbus to project itself with hope on an aeronautical market which will deploy increasingly “decarbonized” aircraft, China is not to be outdone. Indeed, the Chinese state manufacturer, COMAC, inaugurated its first plane, the Chinese equivalent of the A320, at the end of last year.
A long process, repeatedly delayed, but which today allows China to consider rubbing shoulders with Airbus and Boeing in the future. For the moment, the C919, that’s its name, is fitted with engines developed by Safran, and many components of it are manufactured by foreign suppliers. That said, nearly 1,100 orders have already been taken for the C919, which looks like a good springboard for making COMAC, in the years to come, a major player in a global aeronautics market that is trying to operate a energy transition at a forced march.
By Pierre Thouverez
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