China stares down Boeing parts shortage as Comac stockpiles

[NEW YORK] China is hunkering down for a trade war winter without American-made jets and aircraft parts.

With China banning Boeing jets as part of its retaliation to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday (Apr 15), local airlines now face the issue of repairing and maintaining hundreds of aircraft from the US manufacturer in their current fleets.

They also have to find new jets to make up for the Boeing shortfall, no small task given that Airbus’ production capacity is constrained and local manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp of China relies on US-made engines.

For now, airlines and leasing firms have built up a buffer of spare parts over the past couple of years – both from planemakers and from buying up older aircraft – that should help the industry weather the near-term need, sources familiar with the matter said.

Comac has also stockpiled engines to build dozens of planes this year, one of the sources said, while Chinese government officials are considering asking Airbus to supply any new jets with an extra set of engines, other sources familiar with the matter said.

Even if those engines may have been made by US companies or have US components, they would not be levied if they arrive attached to a plane from a French manufacturer, sources familiar with Beijing’s thinking said, asking for anonymity to discuss private matters.

Representatives for Comac did not respond to a request for comment.

Yet these are short-term fixes that underscore how aircraft represent a huge vulnerability for China’s economy, and an area where it’s still highly reliant on US and Western industrial technology.

The weakness is such that some analysts on Tuesday suggested the pause in deliveries may be more of a negotiating tactic.

“We would be surprised if the delay were extended considering the importance of US parts for the Chinese fleet,” RBC Capital Markets analysts led by Ken Herbert said. Any restriction on the import of new aircraft parts needed to support its existing fleet would be “difficult for China to maintain for an extended period”.

China last Friday unveiled retaliatory tariffs of 125 per cent on American goods effective Apr 12, in the latest escalation that started when Trump imposed a US surcharge aimed at lowering America’s trade deficit. Including a 20 per cent levy assessed earlier this year over China’s role in fentanyl trafficking, the rate of US tariffs on China is now 145 per cent.

Trump on Tuesday blasted China for reneging on “the big Boeing deal” signed during his first administration and called on China to reach out to him in order to kick off negotiations to resolve the trade fight.

Comac reliance

Comac’s engine stockpile is largely due to the fact it had been anticipating orders later this year from Hong Kong, Middle East and Vietnamese carriers, one of the sources said.

The Chinese maker’s C919 is a single-aisle jet designed to compete with the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families and has a capacity for 158 to 192 passengers.

It uses CFM International LEAP-1C engines and avionics from Honeywell International and Rockwell Collins, now part of Collins Aerospace, a Raytheon Technologies company. CFM is a joint venture between GE and France’s Safran.

The hydraulic systems for its landing gear come from Parker Aerospace in the US while some of its cabin systems are from Eaton, which is headquartered in Dublin.

Comac’s C929 is a twin-aisle commercial aircraft that’s intended to go up against Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A330neo in the long-haul market.

Comac also has the ARJ21, or recently renamed C909, jet, a smaller turbofan model that’s capable of carrying up to 97 passengers and flying shorter hops.

It’s used by a handful of Chinese carriers as well as TransNusa Airlines in Indonesia. The C929 is still in development and the C919 has not been given the green light by other aviation safety regulators to fly outside of China or Hong Kong, meaning it’s only used by Chinese airlines domestically.

The tariff war may slow production at Comac, “but I do not think it’s going to dampen their ambition”, said Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, airlines’ global lobbying group. “It’s probably going to increase their determination because they probably see this as further evidence that they need to be able to develop their own industry rather than having to depend on the supply of critical parts from outside of China.”

Singapore workaround

According to aviation data provider Cirium, Boeing has delivered 13 737 Max planes and three 787s to China so far this year, with 28 Max jets and one 787 on schedule for the rest of 2025.

“Officially, Chinese operators account for 2 per cent of Boeing’s backlog in units, though there are likely some aircraft for China in the 12 per cent of the backlog for which the buyer is not disclosed,” Cirium analysts wrote earlier this month.

Ultimately, analysts believe that Chinese airlines will have to find a way to access US-made aircraft parts again, irrespective of the trade war.

RBC’s Herbert said that Singapore, which is an aviation hub and home to a number of aircraft maintenance shops, could fill the gap.

“Singapore could provide a workaround for delivery of US aircraft parts and services in China,” he wrote in an Apr 15 note. BLOOMBERG