Boeing Co said late on Friday it would give "serious consideration" over the weekend to filing a formal protest of the US Air Force's decision to award a US$35 billion tanker contract to European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co (EADS) and Northrop Grumman Corp.
Following a debriefing by Air Force officials on Friday, Boeing said in a statement that reports of it losing the competition by a wide margin were inaccurate.
Mark McGraw, a Boeing vice president and program manager of the aerial refueling tanker program, also said company officials had "significant concerns about the process in several areas, including program requirements related to capabilities, cost and risk, evaluation of the bids and the ultimate decision."
The previous week, the Air Force had surprised most people paying attention to the high-stakes contract by announcing that EADS, the parent of Boeing rival Airbus, and Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles would replace the first 179 planes in its aging fleet of nearly 600 air-to-air refueling tankers.
The decision sparked a fierce backlash on Capitol Hill, led by lawmakers from states that would have gained jobs had Boeing won the contract.
If Boeing decides to appeal the decision, the protest would go to the Government Accountability Office.
Separately, supply chain troubles and production problems could force Boeing to further delay the first flight of its new 787 jetliner, analysts said on Friday.
Boeing said it was evaluating the schedule, but that its goal was still to power up the plane early next month and send it on its first flight by the end of June.
In January, the aircraft maker announced a third major delay in the 787 program, pushing the delivery date for the first plane into early next year and saying it would assess its timeline for getting the aircraft off the ground.
Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Safran wrote in a note to investors on Friday that he expected 787 deliveries to be delayed, possibly into the third quarter of next year.
"Boeing continues to underestimate the amount of work required on the 787," Safran wrote. The analyst cut his expectations for deliveries next year to 50 planes from 80.
Boeing spokeswoman Yvonne Leach said deliveries could happen early next year and that the assessment was incomplete.
The company has received orders for about 850 of the 787 from more than 50 customers.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last