Kawasaki dumps Airbus contracts

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Key 787 supplier Kawasaki Heavy Industries is dumping its contract to supply A321 fuselage parts to Airbus, according to reports from Japan. Apparently the two sides couldn’t agree on price.

Kawasaky Heavy has been supplying parts to Airbus for 15 years, according to MarketWatch http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=google&guid=%7BC6517C0F-DF58-420A-96A8-3BDBB9AEDC31%7D&keyword=

Key Quote: “Since 1991, Kawasaki Heavy has been providing Airbus with body panels used behind the main wings of the A321 jet, which is the stretched version of the smaller A320 … As of June, Airbus had received orders for 545 A321s and delivered 355 of them.”

Japan and Boeing “have long had a tight relationship,” noted Reuters. http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-08-03T103442Z_01_T290069_RTRIDST_0_MANUFACTURING-KAWASAKIHEAVY-AIRBUS.XML&rpc=66

Key Quote: “The Japanese government has extended loans to provide part of the roughly $7 billion in development cost for the new 787 Dreamliner, and Boeing has tapped Japan’s heavy machinery makers to provide key sections of its planes.”

As a result, Boeing dominates the market. Airbus has a 4-percent share in Japan, XFN reports. http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/08/03/afx2924543.html