Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE
SINGAPORE Technologies is negotiating with China to take at least a 10% stake in the proposed new AE-100 passenger-aircraft programme.
According to industry sources in Beijing, Singapore Technologies has already signed a memorandum of understanding with Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) to join the international project, but has still to finalise the size of its stake and work-share.
Detailed discussions are under way in the Chinese capital between a Singapore Technologies Aerospace (STAe) team led by senior vice-president Lim Luk Hock, and AVIC commercial aircraft programme director-general Gao Zhan Min. An agreement, is expected to be reached shortly.
Singapore Technologies has provisionally agreed to take at least a 10% share in the 100-seat aircraft programme, development of which is estimated to cost some $2 billion. AVIC is thought to be pressing Singapore to increase this to up to 20% in the event that South Korea drops out of the programme.
Singapore's main function is expected to be as an East-West "marriage broker". STAe performed a similar go-between role for partners Eurocopter and CATIC of China on the EC.120 helicopter programme.
Singapore Technologies, would assist AVIC with the selection of a Western airframe partner, along with sourcing the AE-100's engine, avionics and auxiliary power unit. Singapore's other major contribution could be in the area of financing and marketing.
Actual work-share is likely to involve STAe in the design and development of aircraft components and sub-systems, such as landing gear, engine nacelle and composite structures. Production would be undertaken by Singapore Technologies Precision, which is already looking at establishing a manufacturing plant at Suzhou, in China.
India's Hindustan Aeronautics had been tipped to become the AE-100 programme's third Asian partner, although it now appears to have been ruled out.
AVIC, in the meantime, is understood to have set a March deadline to reach a work-share agreement with its principal partner, the Korean Commercial Aircraft Development Consortium (KCDC). Negotiations between AVIC and the Samsung-led consortium have stalled over Chinese demands for final assembly and project leadership (Flight International, 24-30 January).
South Korean sources suggest that AVIC's demands have not been endorsed by the Chinese Government, and that they threaten the future of wider co-operation between the two countries. Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is due to meet China's State Economic and Trade Committee in early February to discuss the AVIC-KCDC rift.
Source: Flight International
