Embraer expects to decide by year-end whether to transfer full production of ERJ-145 fuselage barrels for Chinese- assembled examples of the regional jet to Harbin Embraer Aircraft.
The forward and centre fuselage plugs are now produced by Embraer in Brazil and shipped to Harbin Embraer, which rolled out the first locally assembled ERJ-145 in December. Other parts of the fuselage are supplied by outside contractors.
Embraer executive vice-president civil aircraft Fred Curado says over the next 12-18 months more of the fuselage work will move to China. The next phase will see fuselage frames assembled at Harbin from parts supplied by Embraer, to which pre-assembled skin sections will be attached. The fuselage barrels will eventually be entirely assembled in China, but still using parts supplied from Brazil.
It is undecided whether the fuselage parts will be manufactured in China, and the decision will be based on economic considerations alone, says Curado.
"The agreement today does not go that far," he says. "There is the potential to manufacture these parts in China, but it's subject to the economics," he adds.
Fabricating parts at Harbin would eliminate the cost of shipping fuselage subassemblies from Brazil to China.
ERJ-145 production at Harbin is ramping up to an initial rate of one a month, though the maximum capacity of the current factory is two a month. Production in Brazil is running at 11-12 aircraft a month.
China Southern is due to receive its first two Harbin Embraer ERJ-145s in June, and take the remaining four in August, November, December and January, respectively. Over the 20-year period to 2023, Embraer predicts a demand in China for 635 aircraft in the 30- to 120-seat range, 8% of the total global figure.
Source: Flight International
