Boeing Identifies Site for China Plant
October 28 2016 - 5:40PM
Dow Jones News
Boeing Co. said Friday that a planned facility to finish and
deliver its best-selling 737 jetliners to Chinese customers would
be sited at a new industrial development on Zhoushan island near
Shanghai.
The plans first announced last year for a plant to paint planes
and install seats and other fittings such as in-flight
entertainment systems has already stirred controversy after
presidential candidate Donald Trump cited it as an example of U.S.
jobs being moved overseas, prompting a sharp push back from
Boeing.
The aerospace company will continue assembling 737s at its plant
near Seattle but send some planes to China for completion through a
joint venture with the state-controlled Commercial Aircraft Corp.
of China Ltd.
A separate Boeing-owned delivery center in Zhoushan will oversee
the handover of the completed planes.
Boeing has previously said the China facility wouldn't cut
employment on the 737 program in Washington state, home to its main
assembly facilities.
"The Chinese government has identified Zhoushan and the region
as a focus area for development in its 13th Five-Year Plan, and the
facility will be an important part of that plan," Boeing said in a
statement Friday.
It gave no details about planned opening dates or
employment.
The new plant would mark a milestone for Boeing's presence in
China, where rival Airbus Industrie SE already assembles some of
its competing A320 jets at a factory in Tianjin. Airbus is also
establishing one there to finish work on some A330 twin-aisle
jets.
Boeing announced its plan in September 2015 during a state visit
by Chinese President Xi Jinping to its Seattle factories that
coincided with a proposed order for 300 planes.
Boeing recently upgraded its forecast for China's plane demand
to 6,800 new planes with a sticker price of $1 trillion over the
next 20 years. Boeing and Airbus have a roughly 50/50 split of the
Chinese market and are deepening their ties with the country's
aerospace industry.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 28, 2016 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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