Unlock the publisher’s digest free
Roula Khalaf, editor -in -chief of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said that he was working with Trump administration to ensure that the company was not “an involuntary consequence” of trade war with China, which suggests that countries buy more of its planes to reduce its trade deficits with the United States.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ortberg, who took the bar in August, also said that the launch of a new plane which should replace its best -selling maximum 737 was not an immediate priority, saying that “the market is not ready now”.
As the largest American exporter, Boeing was taken in the cross -warnings of the volatile trade war by Donald Trump, who overthrew the status of old decade of the aerospace industry, putting the deliveries of aircraft in danger and constraint of the supply chains.
Boeing was about to restart deliveries of new aircraft to the Chinese airlines next month, following an agreement that Washington concluded with Beijing two weeks ago to reduce prices. But Friday, President Donald Trump accused China of going back to the agreement, increasing the possibility of a Chinese response.
The relationship between the countries is “dynamic”, said Ortberg, adding that he had learned not to “hyperventile, because it will probably change tomorrow”.
“In the end, this will lead to new trade agreements-it will be OK,” he said.
“It’s just to manage this period of uncertainty … So we just try to stay flexible, make sure we communicate with the administration so that when they negotiate these things, we do not [become] an involuntary consequence. »»
The trade war came at a critical time for the veteran of the industry who, in April, described 2025 as “the recovery year” of Boeing. Ortberg, a former director general of supplier Boeing, Rockwell Collins, faced the intimidating task of rehabilitating the aerospace and defense group after a series of security and manufacturing crises.
A few weeks before employment, Ortberg was forced to collect more than $ 21 billion in new equity to consolidate the Boeing assessment, as well as the strike of its greatest union which stopped the production of the maximum 737.
Ortberg said Boeing would pay “less than $ 500 million … for the year” on the imports necessary to build the company’s products, a cost that Boeing hopes to disappear after the negotiation of bilateral agreements. Country reprisal rates like China have a greater threat, as they could encourage airlines to refuse delivery.
However, Ortberg said he was convinced that geopolitical tensions would not delay Boeing’s resumption.
The company has a solid back-of-orders, he said, adding that for countries that even want a commercial imbalance with the United States, planes are “a very big article, they would therefore be an excellent opportunity to rebalance”.
The resumption of Boeing, said that Ortberg progressed with a first emphasis on the stabilization of the company. The aircraft manufacturer is approaching the production of 38,737 Maxes per month, the ceiling fixed by the Federal Administration of the American aviation after the eruption halfway last year of a door panel. Boeing must guarantee the approval of regulators to build close -up aircraft at a higher rate – it targets 42 per month – to generate money in the second half.
“Once we got there and I have stable performances on our government portfolio,” said Ortberg, “I will win the stabilization part of the process”.
“You can call it by turning the corner.”
Ortberg has amortized the expectations that Boeing is launching a more economical successor in fuel as soon as possible, despite the concerns that airlines will find it difficult to achieve their durability targets.
Boeing, he said, was not in a financial situation to invest in a new plane program. The market was not ready either, the customers of the airlines struggling with the sustainability of current engine technology. The airlines, he said, “certainly would not want to jump to something more risky and more difficult”.
The company would be ready, he said, when “we will have resources, technology and the ability to do so”.
“It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow.”
In addition, Ortberg said he expected Elon Musk probably withdrawing from his daily involvement in the construction of a new air force, now that he had left the Trump administration. The billionaire earlier this year started advising Boeing on the creation of two new planes for a long time for the American president, which prompted Trump to accept a gift of $ 400 million from another spray by Qatar.
Some of the aircraft requirements were almost impossible to make, said Ortberg, and Musk helped Boeing “working with the customer so that some of these requirements are changed to more reasonable requirements that have always met the mission of the plane”.
