Malaysia’s SME Aerospace (SMEA) has become an approved Boeing supplier following the award of a contract for 777 wing leading-edge sheet-metal parts from BAE Systems.
SMEA says it will deliver 777 components to BAE’s Prestwick facility from March 2006 and plans to pursue other Boeing aircraft contracts now that it has been approved as a supplier.
“I’m confident we’ll close on something,” says chief executive Chee Eng Boon. “We need at least five or six customers to stabilise our growth.”
SMEA had been exclusively an Airbus supplier, manufacturing A320 leading- and trailing-edge parts for BAE, A340 aft pylon fairings for GKN and A380 wing panel parts for Composite Technology Research Malaysia.
The new contract with BAE, worth 290 million ringgit ($76 million) over five years, includes an extension and expansion of SMEA’s A320 work plus the addition of 777 components.
Chee says the new business will triple SMEA’s aircraft-related revenues, which currently stand at just 20 million ringgit a year, including about 15 million ringgit from BAE.
Source: Flight International
