[photopress:embraer_190_jet_china_exhibit.jpg,full,alignright]The world’s fourth-largest aircraft maker is the Brazilian company Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA better known as Embraer. The illustration is one of its 190 models at the headquarters in Harbin. It expects 60% of its Asia Pacific sales over the next twenty years to come from China. The company has a venture in China to assemble 50- seat regional aircraft and expects to sell more than 600 planes in China over the next 20 years.
Frederico Fleury Curado, executive vice president for commercial aircraft sales, said in an interview, ‘China, as a country, is probably the second-largest market for us. We’re focusing on planes in the 30 to 120-seat range, and we see over 1,000 planes over the next 20 years. Roughly 60% of that will come from mainland China.’
Derek Sadubin, chief operating officer of the Sydney-based Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation, said, ‘Foreign manufacturers have really got no choice but to engage with China and to invest and partner with the Chinese aerospace industry because it is such a large potential market. Embraer has cause to be quite optimistic about its prospects across the region and also in China.’
Embraer holds 51% of a venture with state-owned China Aviation Industry which assembles 50-seat planes in the northeastern city of Harbin.
Embraer delivered 130 planes last year, 10 fewer than its target. The company said it expects to deliver 40% of its forecast 165 planes in the first half of this year, and the remainder in the second half.
Source: Bloomberg