September 07, 2008

Baosteel and Chinalco to join jet venture

Reuters reported that China's Baosteel and Aluminum Corp of China the parent of Chalco are set to join a state backed consortium to develop and build large commercial jets.

In addition to Chinalco and Baoshan Iron and Steel Co, the venture will include China's two large aviation companies, AVIC I and AVIC II and could be officially established before the National People Congress in March. The report said the central government would inject cash into the venture from the state owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission to become the largest stakeholder.

The China Aviation Industry Corp I and II would together be the second largest shareholder in the planned company which is designed to reduce the country's reliance on Boeing and Airbus.
AVIC I, parent of Xi'an Aircraft International Corp is developer of the ARJ21 regional jet. AVIC II's Hafei Aviation Industry Co makes the ERJ-145 regional jet in partnership with Brazil's Embraer ERJ.N.

It is reported that China intents to establish its first manufacturer of big passenger jet airplane before March and the new company will design and assemble large aircraft and China’s ARJ21 with 90 seats launched last year.