US aerospace giant Boeing is working on having a final assembly line (FAL) in India, and eventually increasing its sourcing from here from the existing $1 billion (Rs 8,200 crore) per year.
Boeing India head Salil Gupte told The Times of India that they were "looking at a business case" in order to have a final assembly line in India.
"We are looking at the business case to have a final assembly line in India, focussed on increasing sourcing that leads up to that: for components; higher value systems and parts of aircraft. FAL is relatively small in the overall value chain of an aeroplane, unlike say smartphones or electronics where a lot of value is added in the final step. It is critical but represents less that 10 per cent of the overall value of an aircraft. Over time as the demand grows in India and for the region we will evaluate the business case for a FAL," Gupte told the publication.
With over $1 billion annual sourcing from India, Boeing is reportedly the biggest original equipment manufacturer here, and its sourcing is now expected to go up significantly in the coming 2-3 years.
"We have been at the $1 billion level of sourcing from India for the last 2-3 years. During this pandemic time, aeroplane production rates went down significantly. While globally sourcing dropped in that period, in India it stayed flat at a billion dollars. So you can imagine how fast the growth here was even when aircraft production rates were lower. Now as those rates increase, India will ride that wave up," he told TOI.
Gupte further said that the announcement of GE Aerospace of the US signing a deal with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited of India to manufacture fighter jet engines "laid the groundwork for engine manufacturing in India".
The TOI report stated that Boeing and Airbus jointly acquired aircraft orders worth $120 billion from Air India and IndiGo in the last four months. Boeing is likely to grab more major orders from IndiGo in the near future, it added.