European planemaker Airbus SAS opened the Farnborough Airshow yesterday with confirmation it would sell revamped versions of its A330 wide-body jet powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines and offering 14 percent fuel savings.
Deliveries of the A330neo are set to start in the fourth quarter of 2017, Airbus said in a statement, adding it would build A330-800neo and A330-900neo models.
Airbus is to incur development costs for the A330neo from next year to 2017, with an estimated impact of around 70 basis points on the group’s return-on-sales target for next year, the company said.
Photo: Bloomberg
Reports on Sunday said that Airbus would begin the air show with up to 100 commitments for the A330neo, citing industry sources, stepping up a contest with Boeing Co for up to US$250 billion of orders at the core of the long-haul jet market.
The announcement of the upgraded A330, after months of speculation, is Airbus’ attempt to prolong the life of its profitable twin-aisle jet, as the company tries to preserve market share against Boeing’s much newer 787 Dreamliner.
“We have a very good business case and the A330neo, once in service, will continue to significantly contribute to our group’s earnings,” Airbus Group chief executive Tom Enders said.
The A330neo is to have a range increase of up to 400 nautical miles (741km), with room for up to 10 extra seats in the cabin, Airbus said. The aircraft will also have aerodynamic improvements such as new wing tips, as well as an increased wingspan.
“We see strong market potential for the A330neo, and like its market-leading smaller sister, the A320neo, we are confident this new aircraft will be a success in the medium-haul segment,” Airbus division CEO Fabrice Bregier said.
Boeing said on Sunday it would launch an upgraded version of its 737 MAX airliner with new engines and more seats aimed at low-cost airlines.
CEO Ray Conner said the plane would have around 200 seats in an economy-class configuration.
The company has not received any orders for the twin-engine, single-aisle plane yet, but “we’re looking forward to competing whenever it comes up,” Conner said.
The Boeing 737 MAX planes are a family of mid-range airliners with more efficient engines that are designed to compete with the new Airbus A320neo.
The new version is set to have 11 more seats than the current 737 MAX 8, after the addition of a door on either side of the fuselage to comply with evacuation regulations, Conner said.
Boeing also said it had nothing to fear from a new version of the wide-body Airbus A330.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”