Boeing Co is exploring whether to open a factory in China to complete work on its top-selling 737-model jetliners, the first facility of its kind outside the US, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The facility would perform tasks such as painting aircraft built at Boeing’s single-aisle plant outside Seattle, said the person, who was not authorized to comment publicly.
Moving some tasks to China would free up production capacity for the 737, the world’s most widely flown airliner, as Chicago-based Boeing plots an increase to as many 60 planes a month from the current 42.
The company is also eyeing a market that is poised to overtake the US within two decades as the world’s biggest, according to the International Air Transport Association.
The 737 competes with the A320 jet family from Europe’s Airbus Group SE, which is poised to inaugurate its first plant in the US on Monday in Mobile, Alabama.
Boeing’s plans for China are under the spotlight because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is planning a stop in Seattle later this month on his initial trip as a head of state to the US.
Such official visits frequently yield a haul of aircraft order announcements from China’s carriers.
“To succeed in today’s competitive environment, Boeing is always looking for opportunities to support our growth plans and productivity improvements,” Boeing said in response to queries about the new 737 facility.
While Boeing said its overseas partners include China, “we do not comment on options we may be exploring.”
Boeing has responded to growing demand for single-aisle jets with the accelerating tempo at the factory in Renton, Washington, that now builds all its 737s.
Boeing’s talks for a 737 completion and delivery center were first reported by Flightglobal in May.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by