Boeing confirms China halt accepting planes over tariffs
發佈日期: 2025-04-24 19:30
TVB News
Boeing has confirmed some of its Chinese customers are refusing delivery of new planes built for them by the company due to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Boeing's CEO expressed hope China and the U.S. could resolve their trade differences.
The trade war instigated by U.S. President Donald Trump has spilled into the aviation sector with Beijing reportedly telling domestic airlines not to accept further deliveries of Boeing planes and aircraft parts from American companies.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg confirmed that two 737 MAX 8s built for Chinese airlines landed back at Boeing's production hub due to the hefty tariffs. And a third Boeing jet is also on the way back to the U.S. Ortberg said many Chinese cutomers indicated they would not take deliveries.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg: "Potential retaliatory tariffs from other countries which could affect our ability to deliver aircraft. The only region that we have an issue with aircraft delivery today is China, and due to the tariffs, many of our customers in China have indicated they will not take delivery."
The company initially planned to deliver 50 new planes to China this year, and 41 of them were already built or in process. Ortberg said it is hoped that the tariff issue could be resolved via negotiations over time.
However, currently Boeing will have to cope with the rising costs or may redirect some aircraft meant for China to other airlines.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg: "We're actively assessing options, for remarketing already built or in process airplanes. And for the nine airplanes not yet in the production system, we're engaged with our customers to understand their intentions for taking delivery, and if necessary, we have many customers to assign those positions to other customers. It's an unfortunate situation, but we have many customers who want near-term deliveries and we're not going to continue to build aircraft for customers who will not take them."
Boeing reported its first-quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday, showing total revenue of 19.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 17 percent year-on-year. It posted a net loss of 31 million dollars, an improvement from a loss of 0.366 billion dollars in the prior-year period.
The company's consolidated debt stood at 53.6 billion dollars. The financial result was described by Ortberg as an indication the company's recovery plan is "in full swing," although the result was for a period before the full implementation of U.S. tariffs.
