Airbus, the France-based plane maker, announced the agreement to build a second assembly line at its factory in China and received approval from Beijing to move ahead with 160 previously announced plane orders, highlighting how China remains a critical market for European companies. The agreement was signed by Airbus’s CEO, Guillaume Faury, who was part of an economic delegation accompanying French President Emmanuel Macron and President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Union on a state visit with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.
Airbus plans to expand production of its best-selling A320 single-aisle jet and increase sales in China. Under the deal, the world’s largest plane maker will double production capacity of the A320 at its factory in Tianjin, in an aviation market that is the fastest growing in the world. In 2022, Russia throttled back natural gas exports while Norway dialed them up, becoming Europe’s main supplier of the fuel and feeding more oil to its neighbors. Central banks around the world have tried to tackle soaring prices by rising interest rates.
European countries have been under pressure from the US to isolate Beijing by imposing more trade curbs on sensitive technologies such as semiconductors that could have military uses. Ms. von der Leyen said in a speech ahead of the trip that E.U. countries needed to reduce risk and “rebalance” economic ties with China. But other European leaders, and Mr. Macron in particular, have sought to maintain strong economic links despite China’s increasing assertiveness and support for Russia.
China has overtaken the US as Europe’s biggest trading partner, and Beijing was the third-biggest destination last year for European Union goods exports and the largest source of goods imported to the bloc. France is Europe’s second-biggest exporter of goods to China, behind Germany. During a trip to China in November 2022, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said Beijing and Berlin should work together amid a “complex and volatile” international situation.
Even so, the Chinese market remains critical for many European businesses. The domestic aviation market is rebounding since the lifting of stringent “zero Covid” regulations in early December. Over the next 20 years, China’s air traffic is forecast to grow much faster than that in the rest of the world, representing 20 percent of demand for new aircraft, Airbus....
