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TIANJIN TONIC
Despite competition from Zhuhai and Xian, Airbus opted
for Beijing’s burgeoning port city for A320 assembly work
BY LEITHEN FRANCIS
Beijing’s port city of Tianjin has
moved to the fore of China’s
aerospace sector thanks to investment
from Airbus Tianjin
and China’s leading aerospace conglomerate
Aviation Industry Corporation
of China (AVIC).
Airbus Tianjin is the first Airbus
A320 assembly plant outside Europe
and delivered its first aircraft on 23
June. When Flight Daily News visited
the factory on 23 July the second aircraft
was being delivered, this time to
Hainan Airlines.
SECOND AIRCRAFT
There was relatively little fanfare for the
second aircraft, unlike the factory’s official
opening ceremony on 28 September
2008 at which the guest of honour
was the country’s prime minister, Wen
Jiabao.
A large poster of Wen is displayed
inside the main assembly plant which,
on the day of our visit, had 10 A320family
aircraft inside in various stages
of completion.
Employees at Airbus Tianjin are
proud that the country’s top leadership
came to the factory’s opening and it
could be argued the move to establish
Airbus in Tianjin has a lot to do with
the premier.
Wen was born in Tianjin and while
holding power he has been pushing for
the development of Tianjin as China’s
third major economic zone after the
Airbus Tianjin this year is due to deliver 11 aircraft
PRODUCTION
IMPROVING THE BEST
The new Tianjin site is better than
Airbus’s Hamburg plant, according
to its general manager.
Jean-Luc Charles says the
Tianjin A320 assembly plant in
north-east China is not only as
good as Airbus’s plants in Toulouse
and Hamburg – it is an improvement.
“It is better… we had a chance
to start from a green field, the production
flow is perfect,” says
FLIGHT DAILY NEWS | 10 SEPTEMBER 2009
Pearl River and Yangtze River deltas.
Airbus was originally looking to
Zhuhai, in the Pearl River Delta, as the
site for the factory. It had ruled out
Shanghai Pudong on the grounds that
the airport there would be too busy to
grant the necessary runway access for
pre-delivery test flights.
Xian, which is already a major centre
for Chinese aircraft manufacturing, was
also in early contention, but was ruled
out because it is too far inland. Airbus
officials felt it would be prohibitively
expensive to have the parts flown in
from Europe.
This meant Zhuhai and Tianjin were
on the final short-list.
Both have under-used runways and
each has a seaport. This is significant because
all the major subassemblies for the
Since Airbus decided
on Tianjin for its A320
assembly plant, the
city has attracted
further investment
A320 are shipped by vessel to China from
Airbus’s Hamburg plant in Germany.
Zhuhai was the favourite by virtue of
its location in southern China, so it
takes European vessels five days less to
reach port, whereas it takes 28-30 days
to reach Tianjin.
But Airbus chose Tianjin because, as
Charles, adding that the main assembly
plant, logistics centres,
paintshop and other buildings are
in the optimal position.
Airbus Tianjin copied the
Hamburg assembly plant, its best
in Europe, and “we took the opportunity
to make Tianjin better”,
Charles says.
“I also have a company at a human
size,” he says, adding that “it
is perfect to manage 500 people”.
Leithen Francis/Flight International
Airbus executives were going through
the final evaluation process, the Chinese
government announced a national
policy of promoting the development of
Tianjin as China’s third major economic
centre.
Since Airbus decided on Tianjin for
its A320 assembly plant, the city has attracted
further investment.
Chinese maker Xian Aircraft last year
secured a deal from Airbus to equip the
wings in Tianjin, winning the extra contract
because it already makes the A320
wingboxes in Xian and it made no
sense to have them shipped from China
to the UK for equipping and then back
to China again.
The wingboxes will continue to be
made in Xian, although Xian Aircraft is
building a factory adjacent to Airbus
Tianjin to handle the wing equipping.
Airbus Tianjin general manager Jean-
Luc Charles says that Xian Aircraft is
due to deliver its first set of equipped
wings in the first half of 2010.
AVIC company Avicopter is making
an even larger investment in Tianjin
than Xian Aircraft and Tianjin’s municipal
government is buying a stake in
Avicopter.
Avicopter has agreed to move its
headquarters from Beijing to Tianjin
and have a helicopter assembly plant,
research and customer support centre
there. These buildings will be near Zhuhai
airport and construction of the
headquarters has already begun.
HELICOPTER FOCUS
This AVIC firm’s main focus is on development
and manufacturing of helicopters,
but it is also the country’s leading
player in composite materials,
recently signing a deal to manufacture
A320 elevators and A350 rudders and
elevators for Airbus.
These parts will be made using composite
materials and be produced at Avicopter’s
factory in the north-eastern
city of Harbin.
There are, at this stage, no plans to
transfer this work to Tianjin because
even though Avicopter plans to locate
its headquarters and an assembly plant
in Tianjin the company still has to provide
work to its other factories that are
spread across the country. �
He adds: “You can be closer to
people, do individual follow-up,
continue with everyone more or
less, ensure people are motivated
and manage the efficiency. We
have defined the best processes
for this site.”
This includes creating “clusters”,
where teams are responsible
for one aspect of the business,
a method that, Charles says, ensures
that people remain focused.
In terms of recruitment, top
management is involved in hiring
everyone, says Charles. Everyone
who works at Airbus Tianjin is also
sent to Airbus in Europe for training,
he adds, and managers who
train the Chinese workers in
Europe are the same managers
they will work with upon their return,
he says.
“That way we generate a team
spirit,” he adds.
Tianjin is looking to become China’s Toulouse
Airbus Tianjin this year is due to
deliver 11 aircraft. Next year the
plant will deliver 26 aircraft and
the production schedule is expected
to steadily increase until annual
output reaches 48 in 2012,
says Charles.
The production volume is lower
than that of the plants in Hamburg
and Toulouse and its output is insufficient
to meet the demand from
Chinese carriers. The government,
PRODUCTION ASSEMBLY
STRATEGY
COASTAL ATTRACTIONS
AVIC is looking for funding – and believes
moving to the seaside will attract more
investors.
Moves by Avicopter and AVIC General
Aircraft to move headquarters to Tianjin
and Zhuhai respectively are part of a
broader push by AVIC to find additional
sources of funding and boost its competitiveness
by being in China’s fast-growing
coastal regions.
The move to the coast represents a
departure from Mao Zedong’s third-front
strategy, which in the 1960s saw China
transfer aircraft manufacturing to the
country’s interior.
At that time it was thought that industries
important to the defence of the country
should be in places where it would be
hard for invading forces to strike.
Invasion was a concern because in the
1960s China’s relationship with Russia
had soured and there were concerns the
Chinese Nationalist government in Taiwan
might be successful in persuading the
USA to back an attack of the mainland.
But times have changed and AVIC has
discovered that having all its major factories
in remote parts of the country makes
it harder for it to attract and retain talented
personnel who generally prefer to
live in, or at least live near, the more developed
cities.
Sources at AVIC say there have been
instances recently where AVIC’s Xian
Aircraft in western China has lost top talent
to Commercial Aircraft Commercial of
China (Comac). The sources say these
talented engineers moved in part due to
the attraction of Shanghai, the city where
Comac is based.
China’s central government has a public
policy encouraging growth in the Pearl
River and Yangtze River deltas as well as
the Bohai sea region that includes
Beijing’s port city of Tianjin.
Avicopter has chosen Tianjin and AVIC
General Aircraft has chosen Zhuhai in the
Pearl River Delta.
The move has provided additional sources
of funding because the respective local
governments have agreed to be shareholders
in the respective AVIC companies.
AVIC Engines is also establishing a new
commercial engine company in Shanghai,
a major city in the Yangtze River Delta.
AVIC, the Shanghai municipal government
and Shanghai Electric will own 40%,
15% and 15% respectively, while an investor
is being sought for the remaining 30%.
The new joint venture is competing to win
a contract produce jet engines for Comac.
AVIC Engines is battling Western engine-makers,
but it is possible AVIC
Engines will partner with a Western engine-maker
that in turn may take the 30%
stake in the joint venture. �
for example, placed a bulk order in
2006 for 150 Airbus A320s on be
half of Chinese carriers.
This means there are no plans
for Airbus Tianjin to produce aircraft
for overseas carriers, but
Charles does not r ule that out in
future.
The A320s assembled in
Tianjin are the same quality as the
A320s assembled in Europe, he
says. �
9
Leithe Francis/Flight International
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