U.S. Resumes Sale Of Airliner Engines To China

The U.S. has removed a ban on the sale of aircraft engines and parts to China after reaching an agreement on exports last week. The deal allows GE to resume shipping engines to Chinese manufacturer Comac for its C919 single-aisle airliner. The LEAP-1C engines are produced in a joint venture by GE and Safran and are used on Boeing and Airbus airliners, too. Comac has hundreds of orders for the recently-certified C919, the country’s first indigenous jet airliner but relies entirely on the LEAPs to power them. The U.S. cut off that supply six weeks ago as part of ongoing trade negotiations. The supply interruption is not expected to significantly affect the C919 production schedule.

According to analysts, that vulnerability rattled the Chinese and they are likely to accelerate research and development to build their engines at home. Russia, which has lost access to aerospace parts from the West over its invasion of Ukraine, recently built a Sukhoi Superjet 100-seat airliner using only Russian parts. It’s the extreme side of a world-wide trend by even the U.S.’s biggest trading partners to lessen dependence on the U.S. in light of recent tariff decisions by the current administration.