Boeing’s triple China deliveries sign of easing trade tensions

[HONG KONG] Chinese airlines took delivery of three Boeing aircraft on Sunday (Jul 13), a rare same-day triple handover that points to easing trade tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Three 737-8 Max aircraft for customers Xiamen Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, and Shandong Airlines took off within the space of an hour starting at 8.45 am Seattle time on Sunday, flight tracker Flightradar24 showed. The planes, carrying Chinese registrations, were headed to Honolulu for a customary first stopover before flying on to China.

Increased Boeing deliveries to China, worth hundreds of millions of US dollars, are a closely watched bellwether for the health of trade relations between the world’s two biggest economies. Animosity has eased recently, with provisional agreements in place for the pair to cut a deal and for a likely bilateral summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

That’s a turnaround from as recently as April, when China temporarily halted Boeing deliveries and hiked its own duties in retaliation for Trump slapping tariffs of as much as 145 per cent on Chinese goods.

More broadly, an uplift in deliveries to China is helping Boeing as it seeks to clear its storage lots of the final aircraft built during a lengthy 737 Max grounding following two fatal crashes last decade. Boeing has delivered 28 planes to China this year to the end of June, according to its website.

Boeing declined to comment on its delivery activity to China.

Sunday’s flurry of jet handovers takes Boeing’s China deliveries this month to at least five, based on tracking data by Aviation Flights Group and a review of Flightradar24 plane movements. That would bring the total activity to 13 aircraft since the jet shipments resumed in early June.

China Southern Airlines and China Eastern’s cargo unit took delivery of a 787-9 widebody and 777 Freighter respectively earlier in July, Aviation Flights Group data showed. Two more 737 Max jets were also flown from the US to a Boeing facility in Zhoushan, China, in recent weeks in preparation for delivery to Chinese airlines, the tracker indicated. BLOOMBERG