| From: roto | 4/14/2024 1:17:45 AM | | | | | | Boeing- China
Expansion project of Boeing's first joint venture in China begins operation
Source: Xinhua
Editor: huaxia
2024-04-13 21:22:30
An aerial drone photo taken on Nov. 30, 2023 shows a view of the Boeing Tianjin Composites Co., Ltd. in north China's Tianjin Municipality. The Phase III expansion project of the Boeing Tianjin Composites Co., Ltd., plane maker Boeing's first joint venture in China, was officially put into operation on Friday.
(Xinhua)
TIANJIN, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The Phase III expansion project of the Boeing Tianjin Composites Co., Ltd., plane maker Boeing's first joint venture in China, was officially put into operation on Friday.
The project is expected to double the production capacity of the Tianjin plant, according to Boeing. The expansion was launched in the original factory area in 2019.
With a total floor area of about 58,000 square meters, the new facility can also provide more space for the assembling work involving more high-end and complex parts.
"Boeing is very proud of the partnership that we have built with China over more than half a century," said Brendan Nelson, senior vice president of the Boeing Company and president of Boeing Global.
"We are committed to China for the next 50 years," said Nelson, adding that Boeing will continue cooperation in China in a wide range of fields, including composites manufacturing, research, training, completion and delivery center, and sustainability.
Established in 1999, Boeing Tianjin Composites Co., Ltd. is the largest production base of composite materials in the Boeing supply chain in China. Its products cover all Boeing aircraft models.
Since China received the first batch of Boeing 707 aircraft in 1973, Boeing has delivered more than 2,000 aircraft to Chinese customers. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 Boeing aircraft use parts and components are made in China. ¦
english.news.cn |
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| From: Thomas M. | 4/24/2024 10:20:22 PM | | | | | | Finance-driven culture and DEI are killing Boeing.
twitter.com
Boeing is the flagship of U.S. airpower and aerospace. But in recent years, its planes have fallen out of the sky. Why?
Boeing is decaying due to succession failure in engineering and on the factory floor.
There are only two companies in the world capable of building and exporting the largest type of civilian aircraft, the "jumbo jet": Boeing and Europe's Airbus. Since 1992, Boeing has gone from enjoying 70% market share to falling behind Airbus in orders and manufacturing.
Manufacturing aircraft is very expensive and technically challenging.
Succession failure in the engineering offices caused the two fatal crashes, as Boeing ended up designing and then delivering planes that, essentially, were programmed to crash themselves during a particular set of circumstances. Which they then did, twice.
To date, nobody has been held responsible for the series of fatal errors. But that is because no error on its own was fatal, just the combination of them, which no engineer at Boeing recognized in time or had the authority to act on, if they did recognize it.
Boeing is not the same company it once was.
Its non-technical managers and executives favored new factories in South Carolina rather than its core Seattle factories, where experienced workers were unionized and more expensive.
It is headquartered in DC now, not Seattle.
The political ascendance of consultants and “MBAs” over engineers, both at Boeing and in the U.S. generally, means that engineers are unable to overrule the decisions of consultants or MBAs and are themselves rewarded for making decisions like an MBA rather than engineer.
What whistleblowers and regulatory audits describe at Boeing is a decline in industrial discipline, with basic norms and standards of competence, decorum, and work ethic falling.
This decline in discipline occurs when workers, technicians, and managers do not transfer their knowledge and skills. It is happening both because of circumventing old factories and workforces with brand new ones, but also because Boeing's workforce is aging. It has been a long time since manufacturing was seen as an attractive career path to American youth. In 2018, over a third of employees represented by Boeing's machinists' union were over the age of 55 years old.
Now, Boeing is rapidly diversifying its workforce. Minority hires are now 47.5% of new hires, up sharply from 37.2% in 2020. Only 29.9% of Boeing interns were white males in 2022. According to Boeing, they have fired 65 employees since 2020 for "behavior deemed to be racist or hateful." These are most likely older white male workers.
This rapid politically motivated change in Boeing's workforce implies that still more succession failure is happening right now.
Outsourcing, subcontracting, diversity policies, MBA-led decision-making, a focus on financial profits in low-margin heavy industry—these are all ultimately just different ways to accidentally cause succession failure, which in airplane manufacturing causes deaths!
Tom |
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| From: John Koligman | 4/29/2024 7:08:12 PM | | | | | | Sad to see a company like BA having it's debt assigned a 'near junk' rating.
Boeing taps debt market to raise $10 billion: Reuters
PUBLISHED MON, APR 29 20242:42 PM EDT
The Boeing logo is displayed on a Boeing building on January 8, 2024 in El Segundo, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Boeing on Monday tapped debt markets to raise $10 billion, after the U.S. planemaker burned $3.93 billion in free cash during the first quarter following slowing production of its best-selling jet, sources familiar with the matter said.
Boeing’s credit rating hovered above “junk” status last week from rating agencies as the planemaker tries to recover from a crisis that began in January after a midair blowout of a cabin panel door plug on a nearly new 737 MAX 9.
Investors and analysts have said Boeing could tap bond markets to get ahead of more than $12 billion in combined debt coming due in 2025 and 2026.
Credit rating agencies on Monday both assigned ratings nearing junk to Boeing’s new senior unsecured notes, with S&P assigning a BBB- rating and Moody’s assigning a Baa3 rating.
Moody’s said the rating reflects Boeing’s still-strong business profile, which continues to mitigate ongoing weak performance in commercial aircraft, although headwinds surrounding the division could persist through 2026.
Boeing will use the bond proceeds to increase its liquidity ahead of maturities on its existing debt load, including $4.3 billion in 2025, S&P wrote on Monday.
“It looks like it will go well,” said one of the sources, who was looking at buying the bonds, adding that he was told it was eight times oversubscribed.
The deal’s bookrunners leading the bond sale include Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, according to the deal’s term sheet.
Boeing declined to comment, but pointed to remarks from Chief Financial Officer Brian West during the company’s earnings last week in which he said Boeing was committed to managing its balance sheet in a prudent manner, with the goal of prioritizing its investment-grade rating and helping the factory and supply chain to stabilize. |
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| From: Thomas M. | 4/30/2024 7:48:09 PM | | | | | | Missing emergency slide that fell off Delta flight found — washed up in front of house of lawyer whose firm is suing Boeing
The emergency slide that fell off a Delta flight departing from JFK Airport on Friday was found two days later — washed up in front of the beachside house of a lawyer whose firm happens to be suing Boeing over safety issues.
Jake Bissell-Linsk — a New York attorney whose firm filed a lawsuit against Boeing following the Alaska Airlines door blowout in January — told The Post he got a surprise on Sunday around noon when he looked out the window of his oceanfront home in Belle Harbor, Queens.
There — trapped on the rocks within feet of his front yard in a freak coincidence — was the emergency slide that fell off the Boeing 767 jetliner.
“We are right on the beach and I saw it was sitting on the breakers,” Bissell-Linsk told The Post.
While officials had been searching for the missing slide in Jamaica Bay since Friday afternoon, it turns out the slide was more far-flung than they expected — as Bissell-Linsk’s home faces the Atlantic Ocean.
Belle Harbor is located six miles southeast of JFK International Airport.
[continued ...]
nypost.com
Tom |
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| From: John Koligman | 5/6/2024 9:23:10 PM | | | | | | FAA opens new probe into Boeing 787 inspections
PUBLISHED MON, MAY 6 20243:59 PM EDTUPDATED 52 MIN AGO
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A Boeing 787 Dreamliner sits on the tarmac at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington.
Robert Sorbo | Reuters
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday it has opened an investigation into the Boeing 787 Dreamliner after the planemaker said some employees had committed “misconduct” by claiming some tests had been completed.
The FAA said it is investigating whether Boeing completed the inspections to confirm adequate bonding and grounding where the wings join the fuselage on certain 787 Dreamliner airplanes “and whether company employees may have falsified aircraft records.”
The agency said “at the same time, Boeing is reinspecting all 787 airplanes still within the production system and must also create a plan to address the in-service fleet.”
Boeing shares were down 1.5% at $177.03 late on Monday afternoon.
Asked for comment, Boeing provided an April 29 email from Scott Stocker, who leads the company’s 787 program, to employees in South Carolina where the 787 is assembled.
He added, “our engineering team has assessed that this misconduct did not create an immediate safety of flight issue.”
Boeing said in April it expects a slower increase in the production rate and deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner widebody jets as the company wrestles with supplier shortages “on a few key parts.”
A Boeing quality engineer recently criticized some of the manufacturing practices on the 787 and 777 widebody programs and testified last month before Congress.
The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into a Jan. 5 mid-air emergency of a Boeing 737 Max 9.
The National Transportation Safety Board has said four key bolts appeared to be missing from the plane that had been delivered by Boeing months earlier. Boeing has said it believes required documents detailing the removal of the bolts were never created. |
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| From: John Koligman | 5/7/2024 1:41:53 PM | | | | | | I suppose the one saving grace for Boeing is that these airlines don't have many other places to shop, and Airbus already has a very full pipeline.
Emirates’ chairman has a message for Boeing: ‘Get your act together’
PUBLISHED TUE, MAY 7 20249:05 AM EDTUPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
Natasha Turak @NATASHATURAK
KEY POINTS
- “We’re not happy really with what’s going on, we always really wanted to see this aircraft entering the fleet when it had been promised,” Emirates airline Chairman and CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told CNBC.
- With 245 passenger planes and five 778 freighters on order, Emirates is Boeing’s largest customer in terms of wide-body jets.
WATCH NOW
VIDEO07:35
‘Get your act together,’ Emirates chairman says on Boeing crisis
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — One of Boeing’s biggest customers issued a call to action to its new management team, expressing frustration with the safety crisis facing the American plane maker and the consequent delays in order deliveries.
“We’re not happy really with what’s going on, we always really wanted to see this aircraft entering the fleet when it had been promised — and there is a delay, it’s not only to us,” Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and CEO of Dubai’s flagship Emirates airline, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Tuesday at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
With 245 passenger planes and five 778 freighters on order, Emirates is Boeing’s largest customer in terms of wide-body jets. But aircraft deliveries by the manufacturer dropped in the first quarter of 2024 to the lowest number since mid-2021 as the company deals with increased scrutiny after a door plug blew out from one of its 737 Max 9 planes midair in January.
Emirates airlines Boeing 777-31H(ER) takes off from Los Angeles international Airport on January 13, 2021.
Aaronp / Bauer-Griffin | GC Images | Getty Images
The company delivered 83 planes in the three months to March 31 — most of them narrow-body 737s — compared with 157 in the prior quarter and 130 planes in the year-earlier period.
Al Maktoum, who sits at the helm of the world’s largest long-haul airline and helped launch it in 1985, echoed the sentiments of many other airline CEOs when it comes to expectations for Boeing.
“I think they have to put a lot of pressure in order to make sure that they deliver to the customer whatever they promised,” he said.
Asked if he had a message for the plane maker, Al Maktoum said: “I always say, you know, get your act together and just do it. And I think they can do it.”
CNBC has contacted Boeing for comment.
The chairman did not indicate that Emirates would cancel the Boeing orders or move them to its French rival, Airbus.
“No, no — I won’t be able to say exactly what we are planning,” he replied when asked about the likelihood of such a move. “But I think you see that we are refurbishing a big number of aircraft within the existing fleet. ... And there will be no shortage within Dubai capacity.”
He cited the airline’s extension of part of its existing fleet, including the mammoth double-decker Airbus A380s, as helping provide sufficient passenger capacity.
The fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Boeing 737-9 MAX, which was forced to make an emergency landing with a gap in the fuselage, is seen during its investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Portland, Oregon, U.S. January 7, 2024.
NTSB | Via Reuters
The recently appointed new management team at Boeing is now tasked with navigating the company’s worst crisis since 2018-2019, during which time two of its new 737 Max jets crashed within a period of six months, killing 346 people.
Following the Alaska Airlines door blowout in January, the Federal Aviation Administration’s six-week audit of Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems “found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements,” the FAA said in March. Spirit AeroSystems makes Boeing Max fuselages
“The FAA identified non-compliance issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control,” it said. The regulatory agency said it informed Boeing’s leadership that it “must address the audit’s findings as part of its comprehensive corrective action plan to fix systemic quality-control issues,” and address its “safety culture.”
In a previous statement cited by CNBC, a Boeing spokesperson said in response to the FAA findings that the company continues “to implement immediate changes and develop a comprehensive action plan to strengthen safety and quality.”
The company’s website says it continues to support the U.S. NTSB and FAA investigations of the Jan. 5 accident.”
— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report. |
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| From: John Koligman | 5/15/2024 12:02:12 PM | | | | | | Justice Department says Boeing breached 2021 agreement that shielded it from criminal charges over 737 Max crashes
PUBLISHED TUE, MAY 14 20246:33 PM EDTUPDATED TUE, MAY 14 20247:43 PM EDT
KEY POINTS
- Boeing broke a 2021 settlement that protected it from criminal prosecution over two fatal crashes of the 737 Max, federal prosecutors said.
- Boeing must respond to the U.S. Department of Justice by June 13.
- The DOJ said Boeing violated the agreement by failing to set up and enforce a compliance and ethics program to detect violations of U.S. fraud laws
Boeing 737 MAX airplanes are pictured outside a Boeing factory on March 25, 2024 in Renton, Washington.
Stephen Brashear | Getty Images
Boeing violated a 2021 settlement that protected it from criminal charges tied to the fatal 737 Max crashes, opening the company up to potential U.S. prosecution, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors said in a court filing in Texas they are still determining “how it will proceed in this matter” and that Boeing will have 30 days to respond.
The airplane manufacturer broke the agreement by “failing to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations,” the DOJ said.
Boeing denied those claims.
“We believe that we have honored the terms of that agreement, and look forward to the opportunity to respond to the Department on this issue,” Boeing said.
In January 2021, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a conspiracy charge with the Justice Department. After a roughly two-year probe, the DOJ accused the company of concealing information about its Max plane that had been involved in two crashes that claimed the lives of all 346 people on board.
Boeing had admitted that two of its 737 Max technical pilots “deceived” the Federal Aviation Administration about the capabilities of a flight-control system on the planes that was later implicated in the two crashes, the Justice Department said at the time.
“This is a positive first step, and for the families, a long time coming. But we need to see further action from DOJ to hold Boeing accountable, and plan to use our meeting on May 31 to explain in more detail what we believe would be a satisfactory remedy to Boeing’s ongoing criminal conduct,” Paul Cassell, a lawyer for crash victims’ families said in a statement on Tuesday.
The plane-maker has been under heightened federal scrutiny after a door panel blew out midair from a 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines on Jan. 5. A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board said bolts that hold in the door plug, which fills an optional emergency exit, didn’t appear to be in place.
The near-tragedy has created a fresh crisis for Boeing, just as it was trying to stabilize its production and improve its reputation after the 2018 and 2019 crashes. |
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