WASHINGTON: The United States could impose export controls on Boeing plane parts as part of Washington’s response to Chinese export limits on rare earth minerals, President Donald Trump said on Friday.
Trump has frequently used Boeing in his aggressive efforts to reshape global trade since taking office in January. During clashes with Trump over trade, Beijing in April ordered Chinese airlines to stop taking deliveries of new Boeing jets temporarily. The planemaker has also landed several large sales from foreign carriers following visits by Trump.
“We have many things, including a big thing is airplane. They (China) have a lot of Boeing planes, and they need parts, and lots of things like that,” Trump told reporters at the White House, when asked what items could the U.S. impose export controls on.
The planemaker is in talks to sell as many as 500 jets to China, Bloomberg reported in August. It would be the U.S. planemaker’s first major Chinese order since Trump’s first term in office.
Even if that falls through, the financial hit to Boeing will likely be small, said Scott Hamilton, an aerospace analyst with Leeham Co. “It’s sandpaper on Boeing’s hide.”
Historically, China made up as much as 25% of Boeing’s order book, but today it is less than 5%.
Chinese airlines have orders for at least 222 Boeing jets, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. The country has 1,855 Boeing airplanes in service. The vast majority of planes on order and in service are Boeing’s popular 737 single-aisle jet.
A ban on spare parts or exports would also hit CFM International, the joint venture between GE Aerospace and France’s Safran, which makes the LEAP engine used on the Boeing 737 MAX. GE also makes engines for the 777 and 787, two larger jets that China has ordered.
Boeing’s European rival Airbus has only 185 orders from Chinese customers, according to Cirium. Airbus has a production facility in Tianjin, which turns out about four of its single-aisle A320 jets a month.
China is trying to jumpstart its own commercial jetliner industry, largely with the COMAC C919, a competitor to the A320 and 737. Chinese customers have ordered 365 of the domestically-built jet, according to Cirium.
U.S. export controls on Western-supplied parts for the C919 have significantly slowed production of that aircraft. As of September, COMAC had delivered only five of the 32 jets Chinese customers expect this year.
