Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空工業), the nation’s largest civilian and military aircraft manufacturer, yesterday said that it has decided to improve ties with its 123 domestic suppliers in the face of more stringent requirements set by major clients.
“Since 2013, Boeing has adopted a policy that requires suppliers to cut prices by at least 10 percent before 2019 or risk being dropped from its list of suppliers for the A320 aircraft,” AIDC president Butch Hsu (徐延年) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
Instead of pursuing redundant investments, AIDC plans to bolster partnerships with its domestic peers, and source materials and parts locally, Hsu said.
“We do not fear competition, but the lack of a consolidated effort with our peers,” AIDC chairman Anson Liao (廖榮鑫) said, adding that he has been in talks with EVA Airways Corp’s (長榮航空) aersospace manufacturing affiliates hoping to establish an “A-Team” in Taiwan’s aviation industry, similar to that among the nation’s top bicycle manufacturers.
AIDC is also positive about China’s order of 250 narrow-body 737 aircraft and 50 wide-body aircraft that was announced by Boeing after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) tour of its Everette, Washington, plant last month.
“About 90 percent of the world’s aircraft contain AIDC-made parts and we are happy to see that number rise,” Liao said.
Parts sold by suppliers such as AIDC are shipped to aircraft manufactures such as Boeing and Airbus, which tend to resell those parts as certified originals to airline companies at much higher prices, Liao said.
The company’s military contracts are progressing as expected, such as the air force’s NT$69 billion (US$2.11 billion) training aircraft upgrade program slated to take place between 2017 and 2022, and upgrade programs for the F-16 A/B jets and the AIDC-developed F-CK1 jet, Hsu said.
As Taiwan’s military continues to streamline, more opportunities might arise for civilian contractors, he said.
Overall, the company remains positive on the global civilian aviation sector amid low fuel prices, citing Airbus and Boeing’s estimates that passenger revenue per kilometer is set to grow at about 5 percent annually for the next two decades.
In the first half of the year, the company reported net income of NT$868 million, or NT$0.96 per share, in line with expectations and compared with net income of NT$839 million, or NT$0.92 per share, in the same period last year.
Sales in the first three quarters of this year rose to NT$20 billion from NT$16.97 billion last year.
From January through last month, the Ministry of Defense remained the company’s largest client, representing 42 percent of sales, followed by General Electric Co (7 percent), Bombardier Aerospace (9 percent), and Rolls-Royce PLC (6 percent), while Airbus and Boeing contributed 3 percent and 4 percent in sales respectively.
AIDC shares gained 0.24 percent to NT$41 in Taipei trading yesterday.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
The US said it plans to help build a first-of-its-kind industrial hub in the Philippines to boost production of inputs crucial to US supply chains. The 4,000-acre hub is intended to be “a purpose-built platform for allied manufacturing” and “an investment acceleration hub where the specific industrial activities are shaped by market demand,” the US Department of State said on Thursday. The project — touted as an “economic security zone” — would be within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a flagship economic project backed by the US and Japan on the main Philippine island. The project was also described as “the first artificial intelligence
RSS