Boeing is set to restart its airplane deliveries to China next month, following a halt that occurred during the trade conflict with the Trump administration, as announced by CEO Kelly Ortberg on Thursday. Ortberg appeared unperturbed by the reciprocal tariffs imposed by some of the United States’ major trading partners this year.
Ortberg had said last month that China had paused deliveries.
“China has now indicated … they’re going to take deliveries,” Ortberg stated. The initial deliveries are expected to commence next month, he revealed at a Bernstein conference on Thursday.
Boeing, a leading U.S. exporter that contributes to reducing the U.S. trade deficit through its aircraft manufacturing, has faced tariffs on components imported from Italy and Japan for its wide-body Dreamliner planes produced in South Carolina. Ortberg mentioned that a significant portion of these costs can be recovered once the aircraft are exported again.
“The only duties that we would have to cover would be the duties for a delivery, say, to a U.S. airline,” he said.
Regarding the rapidly changing trade policies that have included several pauses and some exemptions, Ortberg said, “I personally don’t think these will be … permanent in the long term.”
He reiterated that Boeing plans to ramp up production this year of its best-selling 737 Max jet, which will require Federal Aviation ministration approval.
The FAA capped output of the workhorse planes at 38 a month last year after a door plug that wasn’t secured when it left Boeing’s factory blew out midair in the first minutes of an Alaska Airlines flight.
Ortberg said the company could produce 42 Max jets a month by midyear and assess moving up to 47 a month about half a year later.
The company’s long-delayed Max 7 and Max 10 variants, the largest and smallest planes in the narrow-body family, are scheduled to be certified by the end of the year, he said.
Many airline executives have applauded Ortberg’s leadership since he took the reins at Boeing last August, tasked with stemming years of losses and ending reputational and safety crises, including the impact of two fatal Max crashes.
CEOs have long complained about delivery delays from the company that left them short of planes during a post-pandemic travel boom.
“I do think Boeing has turned the corner,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier Thursday. He said supply chain problems are limiting deliveries of new planes overall.
“We over-ordered aircraft believing the supply chain would be challenged,” he said.
