Thursday December 6, 4:47 pm ET
By Donna Borak, AP Business व्रिटर
US Aerospace Industry Sales Forecast to Grow at a Slower Rate Next Year to $210.6 Billion
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of military and commercial aircraft by U.S. manufacturers are forecast to grow at a slower rate next year, an industry group said Thursday.
The Aerospace Industries Association's annual report forecasts sales by Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and others to rise, on average, by about 6 percent to more than $210.6 billion, with commercial planes, engines and other parts leading the way in 2008.
For 2007, the association estimates that sales climbed 8.5 percent to $198.8 billion. That figure includes $92.5 billion in sales from foreign customers, an increase of $7 billion, or 8.8 percent, from last year's $85 billion, driven by higher demand for commercial aircraft.
Foreign sales of all U.S. aerospace products in 2007 rose for a second year, accounting for nearly half of the industry's business. International demand for commercial aircraft was even stronger. As of Sept. 30, foreign customers had placed nearly three-quarters of commercial aircraft orders, which grew to more than 3,000.
Civil aircraft, which accounted for 26.8 percent of industry sales this year, totaled $53.3 billion, topping last year's $46 billion. That figure is expected to rise 13.3 percent to $60.4 billion in 2008.
With tighter bankruptcy laws and hard lessons from the dot-com bubble have disciplined U.S. carriers to refrain from placing significant orders to recapitalize their fleets, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst for the Teal Group Corp.
"On the commercial side, there's never been this kind of disparity before," said Aboulafia, as U.S. carriers have struggled with record flight delays, rising fuel costs and obsolete aviation systems.
Matt Grimison, a spokesman for AIA, said the industry is anticipating some level of purchasing by U.S. carriers next year.
As of November, Chicago-based Boeing Co., the world's No. 2 commercial airplane maker, had received 1,047 commercial plane orders for 2007, beating its 2006 record-setting 1,044 orders.
Despite a six-month delay in the launch of its new 787 "Dreamliner" plane, orders for it are coming in at a steady clip. The company landed 73 new orders for the plane during the third quarter, bringing the order tally to 710.
"There is pent-up demand among the domestic carriers for aircraft," Marion Blakely, AIA's president and chief executive and former administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a telephone interview. "They have not stepped in to modernize their fleets the way international carriers have."
On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines Co. said it would slow its planned growth in 2008 for the second time this year as it continued to struggle with high fuel costs. The Dallas-based airline now expects to grow 4 percent to 5 percent next year, down from its previous forecast of 6 percent in 2008.
A day earlier rival Continental Airlines Inc. cut its growth expectations for next year to between 2 percent and 3 percent, down from its previous expectation between 3 percent to 4 percent.
For military sales, AIA is projecting a decline next year because of uncertainty over designated funding for aircraft in the federal budget। Sales of military aircraft rose 11 percent to $54.8 million in 2007, from $49.8 billion last year. That figure is expected to decline 4.7 percent to $52.2 due to delays in the contract awards of a $40 billion aerial refueling tanker and a $15 billion combat search and rescue helicopter.
'Tis an unfortunate, yet lucrative endeavor;
Many of us have come full circle with this war. While I (perhaps the majority of us oppose it) Yet; there is and has been an evolving acceptance that it is not going to go away, and in the last year of the reign of the Busheviks anything is possible.
So we embrace our daily freedoms and make the bast of a bad situation. (?)
The Aerospace/Defense Industry seems to be the blossoming trend with investors.
I confess to be a part of this investing trend, with shares in almost all A/D funds and individual stocks.
They are performing, afterall...
Suffice to say we have compromised to the beast that was the original motive behind this war; Money, and in so doing have seen our very own officials invest in Middle East Land, and our citizens, myself guilty as charged, investing in the entities used to create various vessels used to propagate endless violence and bloodshed.
So, if we can't beat the system- we capitalize on it...That is American, after all.
