Supply chain issues will last throughout 2023 according to Boeing
Supply chain issues will last throughout 2023, according to Boeing’s chief executive David Calhoun.
The plane manufacturer said woes were exacerbated by a faster-than-expected return of demand.
“The shift from demand to now supply issues … is remarkable, the speed with which it happened,” the chief executive said during Bloomberg’s Qatar Economic Forum today.
“It’s been a real issue for both manufacturers and will probably stay that way in my view almost to the end of next year.”
Calhoun’s comments followed Boeing announcing in early June it was forced to pause the production of its 737 planes due to a lack of wiring connectors.
The statement came a few weeks after BA’s owner IAG had placed an order for 50 737 aircraft, half of them 737 Max 8200 planes and half 737 MAX 10.
The company is still struggling to recover from a turbulent period, which saw the plane maker halt production of its 777X jets after it posted for a $1.24bn net loss, steeper than anticipated, for the first quarter of 2022.
Boeing’s main competitor Airbus said short-term risks would grow due to a tight supply chain but it remained confident in its ability to increase output by 50 per cent within the next three years.
“It’s true that in the short term, we’re facing extreme uncertainty and unpredictability all along the supply chain… which means that there are some slippages right now, but they’re not structural,” said Airbus’s chief commercial officer Christian Scherer.
The European plane make said in early June it had delivered 6 per cent fewer planes in May compared with 2021 levels.