Airbus' David Williams told Washington suppliers in Bellevue that his company wants more procurement from them.
About 125 representatives of aerospace supply companies ? more than triple the number organizers had expected ? gathered in Bellevue?s Red Lion Hotel Thursday to hear about selling to Boeing rival Airbus.
That?s right: Despite that fact that the Puget Sound area is home turf for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the industry and the state are seeking more Airbus work to support the health of Washington?s aerospace suppliers, now estimated to number more than 1,000.
?We brought Airbus in to diversify,? said John Graham, secretary of the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance, which co-sponsored the event with the state Department of Commerce. ?It?s important for suppliers to have diversity, so that they can also adjust as things go up and down.?
Graham was referring to the historic cyclical production swings, as well as more recent issues such as the protracted delays of the 787 Dreamliner. The latter have stuck some local suppliers with production investments they made for the 787, but that so far haven?t paid off.
He added that the aerospace supply industry here needs more business to ward off recruiters from around the U.S., and from around the world, seeking to lure Northwest companies away.
?If we don?t remain globally competitive, we won?t remain where we are today,? he said. ?This event, being the first of its kind, is very important to the business community.?
Airbus parent EADS is pushing for more U.S. sourcing to take advantage of the fact that it sells aircraft in dollars, to diversify its own risk away from over-reliance on Europe, and to tilt the U.S. political calculus in its favor. The latter might have brought the hard-fought Air Force tanker contract to EADS, if Airbus had already had the Mobile, Ala., plant it?s building now.
Steve Wilhelm covers manufacturing, aerospace and trade for the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bizj_seattle/~3/of26iYShP08/airbus-comes-to-washington-offering.html
news channel 9 insanity workout mass effect 3 launch trailer yelp huntsville al channel 2 news adrienne bailon
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন