India, China To Vie For Business At Paris Air Show

India and China will be fighting for sub-contract work from western aeronautical firms at the upcoming Paris Air Show.

India has planned a hardsell of its technical expertise, while China is to dangle an estimated $25 billion domestic aircraft market as bait for foreign companies to invest in its aviation industry.

The two countries recently kicked off rival 100 seater aircraft projects to tap the growing Asian market for low-cost medium-capacity planes.

Scale mock-ups of the two 100 seaters are expected to be displayed at the show, along with technologies and systems that go into them.

The programmes are very important for both to improve their indigenous industry with the aim of acquiring sub-contracts for large western projects.

 

Indias only integrated civilian and defence aircraft manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), will present a new face as a competitive provider of spares, sub-systems and technologies rather than a manufacturer of old technology aircraft. Mostly derived from ongoing work on the light combat aircraft (LCA) and the advanced light helicopter (ALH).

Expertise in radar, avionics, testing, sub-assembly and software will be offered to western firms looking to cut cost in their billion dollar programmes.

The 30 per cent work share provision to be built into all Indian aircraft purchases is expected to force investments into the aeronautical sector, sources said.

HAL has already been promised business worth $1 billion from Boeing and Airbus if Air India buys their respective $3.2 billion medium-capacity long-range (MCLR) aircraft. India has procured sub-contract business from the sale of Boeing 747-400 to India last year.

It has also been promised 30 per cent plough-back business from British Aerospace if the Indian Air Force buys the Hawk trainer jet.

Over the next five years the Indian aeronautics industry should have a corpus of $2-3 billion in committed counter-trade contracts, a senior official said. This commitment will enable Indian companies to attract foreign investment to set up facilities to execute this contract, he added.

The boom in the Chinese aircraft market is unlike anywhere else in the world. China has ordered civilian planes worth $10 billion during the last three years. It has plans to assemble 200 Russian Sukhoi-27 fighters worth another $10 billion.

A joint venture with Rolls Royce to build civilian engines has just got under way. Avionics, sub-systems, simulators, maintenance systems, engines and infrastructure worth another $5 billion is on order.

While the aircraft industry in the West is stagnating and recent high-growth areas like the Gulf have slowed down in terms of new purchases, China is more than making up for this loss.

Aviation trade journals like Airline Business and Flight International estimate that China will have first rate aircraft manufacturing industry by the middle of the next century financed from plough-back contracts and western investments.

India to invade world market with copters

Press Trust of India NEW DELHI

India has decided to market internationally advanced light helicopters (ALHs), civil aircraft and electronic and communication systems manufactured by defence public sector undertakings.

The development of sophisticated equipment like the advanced light helicopters would give a boost to exports, minister of state for defence N V N Somu told the parliamentary consultative committee of the defence ministry on Wednesday night.

The minister of state said that Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had decided to manufacture civil aircraft which would be marketed internationally.

Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) had recently introduced emergency communication systems, unmanned level crossing alarms and long-distance satellite telephone, he said.

Exports from public sector undertakings (PSUs) manufacturing items for the defence sector would be worth Rs 300 crore over the next five years, the minister said.

The minister of state also told the parliamentary committee that the export figure for the defence PSUs had grown over 82 per cent from Rs 69.35 crore in 1995-96 to Rs 126.34 crore in 1996-97.