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Firm set up to produce commercial aircraft engines

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-19 12:54

A company was set up in Shanghai on Jan 18 to make engines for jumbo aircraft in a move intended to help China reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.

The AVIC Commercial Aircraft Engine Co Ltd (ACAE) will be involved in "research, design, production, sales, maintenance, service and technological consulting for jet engines and related products", said Zhang Jian, manager of the company.

The government-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) holds a 40 percent stake in ACAE, which has registered capital of 6 billion yuan ($877 million). The power equipment maker Shanghai Electric Group and Shanghai Guosheng Group, the municipal government's investment arm, hold 15 percent each.

"We invite global investors, especially private ones, to take up the remaining 30 percent of the company," said Tan Ruisong, deputy board chairman.

The firm is another step in the development of the commercial aviation industry after the establishment of the Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd in May last year. The plan is to put aircraft with at least 150 seats into the market by 2020.

"It would take about 20 years to develop an engine to propel China's first homemade large plane," said Liu Daxiang, an expert with the AVIC, the country's leading aircraft maker.

According to Chinese analysts, developing aircraft engines will break the monopoly of foreign suppliers such as GE, Rolls-Royce and the Pratt & Whitney Group. An engine industry will also stimulate the growth of other domestic sectors such as electronics, digitally-controlled machines and composite materials.