China's new aircraft manufacturer, which will compete with Boeing and Airbus, will be formed in March with two smaller state-owned aircraft makers, as well as a steel firm and an aluminium company as preliminary shareholders, according to a mainland newspaper.
The company, whose name has yet to be announced, will be controlled by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (Sasac). China Aviation Industry Corp I (AVIC I) and China Aviation Industry Corp II will have combined stakes as the second-largest shareholder, according to Shanghai Securities News, quoting an unnamed source from AVIC I.
State-owned Baoshan Iron & Steel and Chinalco, parent of Aluminum Corp of China, were on the list of preliminary shareholders for the new company, the newspaper said.
Chinalco, the country's largest aluminium producer, is keen to be one of the shareholders as aluminium is a major component in aircraft. But the report said that the shareholder list had yet to be finalised and the stakes of these two companies would be very small. Local governments, including Shanghai, would inject about five billion yuan into the company. The total capital of the company was not disclosed.
Last year Boeing revised upward its estimate of the number of aircraft that the mainland needs to buy over the next 20 years to 3,400 from 2,880. The Seattle-based aircraft maker aims at taking a 60 per cent share of these potential new orders.
However, Beijing does not want Airbus or Boeing to dominate the lucrative market nor does it want to see the expansion of the mainland aviation market held in the hands of foreign companies.
