Planes, this is how the Chinese Comac will challenge Boeing and Airbus
China Eastern Airlines has ordered one hundred examples of the C919 jet produced by state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac), in a contract worth around $10 billion. Is Chinese competition ready for Boeing and Airbus?
Is the era of the Boeing-Airbus duopoly coming to an end? The commercial success of the C919 , the flagship model of the Chinese state company Comac which has already placed a thousand orders, represents a wake-up call for the American and European aerospace industry. Here's what Bloomberg writes about Comac's exploit.
THE JEWEL
There is news, writes the American financial newspaper, which should alarm Boeing and Airbus: last week China Eastern Airlines ordered one hundred examples of the C919 jet produced by the state company Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac), with a contract worth approximately 10 billion dollars.
Although that figure will certainly be revised downwards after the discounts applied by the company, it is undoubtedly an exploit for an aircraft designed to compete with the Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320Neo. But the order also marks the extraordinary progress made by a company founded in 2008 as a joint venture of other companies including Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic).
Although Comac had already achieved some success with the ARJ21 model, the C919 is its real flagship, with a total number of orders close to one thousand units. Are we therefore on the eve of a drastic change of pace in the aircraft market to the detriment of the two American and European giants?
TREND REVERSE
The sale of aircraft and related parts and equipment has represented the main export item in China over the last three decades. Now, however, that item, after having reached 18.8% in the nineties and 9.5% in the decade ending with 2019, represents only 3.4% of total exports.
Covid first and foremost contributed to this poor performance of Western producers. Then came the disasters involving the Boeing 737Max in 2018 and the following year, which was subsequently also banned from China. And even if that model is now flying again, and entering the wish list of Chinese companies, there are excellent reasons to think that there will be no rebound, given the poor relations between China and the West and the ongoing trade war with USA.
THE “LEAP” OF CHINESE PRODUCERS
To develop the C919, Comac made use of numerous foreign partners such as General Electrics, which supplies the engines. The cooperation agreement with the Canadian Bombardier dates back to 2011.
If on the one hand the Chinese aerospace sector has tried to procure technology through joint ventures and commercial licenses, on the other hand it has tried to acquire know-how through means that are not always legitimate.
The discovery made by the FBI according to which Chinese secret agents stole GE Aviation's engine technology dates back to 2017, while the following year saw the case of the US aviation contractor who helped the People's Liberation Army enter into possession of 630,000 files relating to the Boeing C-17.
The suspicion is that even now the C919 was built with technology illegally stolen from the USA. In a rigid industry like aerospace, which evolves slowly (the Boeing 747 was introduced in 1968), technology theft is the only way to quickly catch up with the competition. A few clever moves are enough to close the gap with rival companies.
CHALLENGE FOR THE WEST
The advent of fierce Chinese competition represents a serious commercial and economic challenge for the USA, whose aerospace industry employs more than half a million workers, of which more than 200,000 in aircraft manufacturing. The availability on the market of models competing with those produced by national industries means that those jobs are at risk, in a problem exacerbated by the generous subsidies that the government gives to companies like Comac.
That's why Bloomberg believes that US and European governments must urgently adopt policies to limit access to their aerospace technology by imposing severe restrictions on licensing and joint ventures.
Forewarned is forearmed.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/aerei-ecco-come-la-cinese-comac-sfidera-boeing-e-airbus/ on Tue, 10 Oct 2023 05:00:39 +0000.