Bloomberg is reporting that Embraer is considering closing its factory in Harbin, China, because of slumping demand. Orders for business jets in China have essentially stopped thanks to a crackdown on corruption. The wealthy are lying low trying not to attract the attention of increasingly aggressive government investigators and buying a business jet has fallen off the radar for virtually everyone. Embraer converted a plant that used to build regional jets for Chinese airlines to building Legacy business jets but it has delivered just two aircraft so far this year according to an unnamed source quoted by Bloomberg. The news service says Embraer hasn’t commented on the report.
The politics in China and the sanctions against Russia because of the Ukraine situation have turned growth projections by many companies upside down. Most have invested heavily in China in particular as the government there signaled a virtually untapped market was about to be opened up through steady liberalization of airspace policy. According to Bloomberg, Embraer is saying the Harbin facility is running normally but it did not address the facility’s future. The factory used to make ERJ-145s but was converted for Legacy 650 and 600 production after the last of 50 regional jets was delivered in 2011, according to Bloomberg. The Aviation Industry Corporation of China is a partner in the Harbin facility.
