WCA March 2008

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2008 35
The Wisconsin Project thinks otherwise. Its report, made
available in advance to the New York Times, asserts that two
non-military Chinese companies designated as trustworthy
are, in fact, high-risk because of links to the Chinese
government, the People’s Liberation Army, and other
Chinese entities suspected in the past of ties to Syria and
Iran. In a reprise of the Huawei situation, one of the Chinese
companies, BHA Aero Composites, is owned 40% each by
two American companies: the aircraft manufacturer Boeing
and the aerospace materials maker Hexcel. The remaining
20% is held by the Chinese government-owned company
China Aviation Industry Corp I, also known as AVIC I.
US business groups that advocate greater technology-
sharing with China say that the administration has
been cautious enough in its new policy, particularly
in choosing Chinese companies that have American
partners or owners.
The three other Chinese companies named in October
2007 as ‘validated end-users’ are Applied Materials
China, a subsidiary of Applied Materials, a maker
of semi-conductors based in California; Chinese
facilities operated by National Semiconductor, another
US company; and Semiconductor Manufacturing
International, based in Shanghai. Among them, the five
companies exempted from the licensing requirements
accounted for $54 million of the $308 million in exports
to China that came under those restrictions in 2006.
As the Herald Tribune’s Mr Weisman points out, the
US Commerce Department tries to ease the way for
American companies to export to markets overseas,
and there has been a particular emphasis on selling to
China. Even as congressional leaders of both parties
called on the Bush administration to exercise greater
vigilance toward China, the United States in 2007 was
generating a trade deficit with that country estimated at
nearly $300 billion. As Mr Mancuso, of the Commerce
Department, observed: “China is a huge market for our
commercial technology exports.”
Aerospace
On target to become No 1 worldwide,
Emirates Airlines sees the US as key
It is only a matter of time, according to Sheik Ahmed bin
Saeed al Maktoum, before Emirates Airlines becomes the
world’s largest carrier. The chairman and chief executive
of Emirates expects that to happen by the year 2015, and
his projection is well founded. The airline, based in Dubai,
part of the United Arab Emirates, is growing faster than
any other airline. As noted by staff writer Peter Pae of the
Los Angeles Times, most of the airline’s growth until recently
has been along routes over the Atlantic and in the Middle
East. But now it is setting its sights on the US, particularly
Los Angeles. With Los Angeles service, Emirates could
target the sizable Muslim community in Southern California;
and drawing the Hollywood crowd would advance the
ambitions of tiny but mightily ambitious Dubai to become
the film-making and entertainment capital of the Middle
East. (‘Emirates Eyes US to Reach Lofty Goal,’ 7th January)
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Dubai and the American West would appear to be a good
fit. United Arab Emirates, a country made up of seven
emirates, is considered one of the more westernised Arab
nations. And Dubai, like the US, is striving to reduce its
dependency on oil as a revenue source. Oil that made the
Persian Gulf region rich is drying up in Dubai. When the
oil is gone, the country – already a major air transportation
hub – intends to have a major aerspace industry to take up
the slack. Mr Pae made it plain that the US is a prominent
factor in those plans. In December, Emirates Airlines threw
a $2-million party in Houston for a Dubai sheik who was in
Texas to celebrate the start of non-stop service between
Houston and his home emirate. The event, for some
700 guests, held under the massive retractable roof of a
41,000-seat baseball stadium, was from all accounts one of
the most lavish private bashes the city had had in a while.
Or at least, Mr Pae wrote, ‘not perhaps since the free-
spending oil boom days.’
For its part, the US is striking up a very dynamic new
friendship. As summarised by Mr Pae, the brief history
of Emirates Airlines is extraordinarily impressive. Started
in 1985 with two leased planes, it now operates a fleet of
112 long-haul, wide-body jets. It gets a new plane – typically
at a cost of $200 million to $300 million each – about every
two weeks, and it has placed orders for 245 planes worth
$60 billion. It is the largest buyer of the $350-million, double-
decker Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet. It has
ordered 58 of these, nearly one-third of all orders for the
plane.
Emirates hopes some day to command a transpacific
route, taking travellers around the globe in both
directions. Now, with $15 billion in seed money, Sheikh
Ahmed has started Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, whose
interests include creating and acquiring companies that
make, maintain, and repair aeroplane parts. The new
entity has already acquired two aircraft maintenance
companies in Los Angeles; and, in December, said it was
ordering 200 planes for its leasing business from Boeing
Co and Airbus, which would make it the world’s third-
largest aircraft leasing company.
Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst for research firm
Teal Group Corp told the Times: “They have a holistic
aviation industrial policy. These are all growth areas, so
if traffic doesn’t pan out they can get into aircraft repair
and leasing.”
Elsewhere in aerospace . . .
In the most recent edition of its annual ‘Current Market
Outlook,’ Boeing Co (Chicago) predicted that China will
need to buy 3,400 aircraft at a cost of $340 billion over
the next two decades as its air travel market grows to
rival that of North America in size. The forecast was
higher than earlier projections by the big aircraft maker
and its European rival Airbus Industries, which put
Chinese demand at 1,900 to 2,600 aircraft over two
decades.
Boeing expects the total Chinese fleet to nearly
quadruple to 4,460 aircraft by 2026. Over the same
period China’s domestic air travel market will grow nearly
fivefold ‘to become slightly larger than today’s Intra-
North American market,’ the report said.
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