Boeing is looking for a buyer for its St Louis, Missouri-based parts fabrication business. The company is looking for a fabrication specialist willing to leave the current operations in place and bring in more, non-Boeing, work to reduce costs.
The business represents about 10% of the workforce and 15% of the facilities at Boeing's St Louis plant. It operates at about 40% of its capacity. Operations include high-speed machining, composites manufacturing and sheet-metal fabrication for the C-17 Globemaster, F-15 Eagle, F/A-18, T-45 Goshawk and AV-8B Harrier - worth about $300 million a year.
Boeing is selling the business "to free resources and compete more effectively for prime contracts", says Military Aircraft and Missile Systems president Jerry Daniels. The company wants to focus on systems integration, which encompasses final assembly, test and delivery of aircraft.
Negotiations are under way with a "small number" of potential buyers prepared to keep the current operations in St Louis and consider ways to add business, invest in new technology and process improvements and meet cost-reduction targets under a long-term supplier relationship with Boeing.
Most of the 1,700-strong workforce will transfer to the purchaser, with some initial job reductions. "We have structured the potential sale in such a way that a purchaser would have to add work to St Louis to meet cost targets," says Daniels.
Boeing, meanwhile, has signed a $8.9 billion contract with the US Navy for multi-year procurement of 222 F/A-18E/Fs.
Source: Flight International
