Harbin Hafei Airbus Composite Manufacturing Centre (HMC), a joint venture between Airbus and Chinese partners, has become the sole composite structure supplier of some A350 XWB parts, announced Airbus on Thursday.
The joint venture in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has become a key part of the global supply chain, Airbus said.
According to Airbus, HMC is now the sole composite structure supplier worldwide for its A350XWB rudder, elevator, belly fairing and S19 maintenance door work package. Operational A350XWB airplanes are assembled with these composite parts which are manufactured in China.
It also provides 100 percent of all its A320 single-aisle aircraft's rudder shells and 80 percent of all rudder assemblies.
"Harbin Composite Manufacturing Centre is a key participant which makes the A350XWB and A320 fly. It has become an integrated part in Airbus' global supply chain and will continue to play an important role in contributing to the success of Airbus commercial aircraft," said Francois Mery, Airbus Commercial Aircraft China COO.
Mery made the remarks at the tenth anniversary of the operation of the HMC. He said Airbus will continue to extend and deepen the long-term partnership with the Chinese aviation industry.
"We are moving faster to meet the target of making the total value of China-Airbus industrial cooperation to reach one billion dollars by 2020," he added.
The HMC is a joint venture between Airbus and its Chinese partners of Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and Harbin Development Zone Infrastructure Development Company Limited (HELI). Airbus China owns 29 percent of the joint venture.
For the A350XWB program, the manufacturing center delivered its 300th A350XWB elevator in May this year. And the 300th A350XWB rudder and 400th A350XWB maintenance door will be delivered in the coming months.
And for the A320 program, HMC delivered the 1,000th A320 rudder in June 2017, followed by the 2,000th delivery in May this year.
"The successful operation of the HMC for ten years is an important achievement of the win-win cooperation between AVIC and Airbus," said Gu Haicheng, vice president of AVIC and chairman of the HMC Board.
"It also marks a major step of the integration of China into global aviation industry chain," he said.
China is the largest market of Airbus commercial aircraft. To date, around 1,750 Airbus commercial airplanes are serving for the Chinese market, according to Airbus.
Meanwhile, China is also an important industrial cooperation partner of Airbus. In 2017, the total value of industrial cooperation between Airbus and the Chinese aviation industry reached 641 million U.S. dollars in 2017.
China is now the world's second largest civil aviation market and is expected to become the largest in mid-2020, according to the International Air Transport Association.
