Julian Moxon/PARIS
The French aerospace industry has revealed some of its its best ever performance figures, with industry body Gifas president Jean-Paul Béchat promising the trend will continue over the next two years.
Overall sales for 1997 increased by more than 19% to Fr130 billion ($21 billion). Orders were up by one-third to Fr158 billion.
Gifas predicts that sales will rise again this year by 15% to Fr150 billion, although Béchat cautions over the financial crisis in South-East Asia, which accounted for 8% of French industry sales last year.
The bulk of the upturn again came from civil markets, but military business also rose for the first time in six years. The latter showed an increase in sales of nearly 21%, helped by export deliveries of Dassault Mirage 2000-5s, and associated equipment, to Taiwan and Qatar.
Military orders rose by 40%, with the domestic portion benefiting from the introduction of multi-year procurement of four missiles systems. The domestic military orderbook rose by 57% in 1997.
Béchat cautions that the entire aerospace industry is likely to suffer from the reduction in defence spending, particularly in terms of research and development budgets. He points to a 30% fall in purchases since 1990, alongside cancellations in 1997 amounting to Fr5 billion on the original Fr88.7 billion equipment budget. The same will be true in 1998, Béchat adds, with Fr300 million in cuts having already been made in the original spending plan.
"These uncertainties risk the future of programmes and leave industry incapable of planning for the future," he says.
The civil business, which now accounts for 60% of the French industry, received a boost from record Airbus output. CFM International also saw a doubling of orders for CFM56 engines.
Sales of Dassault Falcon business jets, ATR regional aircraft and helicopters, plus an improvement in the value of the franc against the dollar, contributed to a 33% growth in civil export sales.
Source: Flight International