Boeing, displaying here at the 2025 Paris Air Show, is in talks to sell up to 500 aircraft to Chinese companies. Photo / Nicolas Economou, NurPhoto via Getty Images
Boeing, displaying here at the 2025 Paris Air Show, is in talks to sell up to 500 aircraft to Chinese companies. Photo / Nicolas Economou, NurPhoto via Getty Images
United States aviation giant Boeing is in talks to sell up to 500 aircraft to Chinese companies, according to Bloomberg News reports citing sources familiar with the matter.
The deal would be a major win for the struggling US manufacturer, with company shares rising as high as 3.7% inpre-market trades, but up only about 0.2% at 11.20am (3.20pm GMT).
Bloomberg’s sources said the deal would be contingent on Washington and Beijing coming to a longer-term agreement in their simmering trade war.
The Boeing deal would likely be a key facet of a US-China trade deal, according to Bloomberg, whose sources said Chinese officials had begun surveying domestic airlines for how many planes they would need.
“We don’t comment on speculation,” Boeing told AFP, when asked about the report.
Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has hit trading partners around the world with new tariffs, seeking to address US trade deficits that he says are evidence of unfair practices.
Purchases of planes from Boeing, the largest US manufacturing exporter, often play a role in Trump’s deals promising to offset trade imbalances.
The deal depends on a US-China trade agreement and would be significant for Boeing. Photo / Getty Images
In July, the White House said Japan had committed to buying 100 Boeing jets, and Indonesia 50 aircraft, as part of trade pacts negotiated to avoid steeper tariffs.
Trump has taken particular aim at China in his attempt to remake international trade.
Washington and Beijing have slapped tariffs on each other’s products this year, with the escalation at one point rising to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, including a temporary halt to deliveries of Boeing jets.
But both sides agreed in May to temporarily lower the duties, and have issued subsequent 90-day extensions as they negotiate a longer-term deal.
China’s last major Boeing deal came early in Trump’s first term in office, during his state visit in November 2017, when Beijing agreed to purchase 300 single and twin-aisle planes for more than US$37 billion ($63.58b).
Boeing in July reported a smaller second-quarter loss than the previous year, while delivering its most planes since 2018.
The manufacturer has been dogged by quality control-related issues after the near-catastrophic blowout of a fuselage panel on a 737 MAX in January 2024.
That incident followed two deadly crashes of the popular MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019.
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) in June said the global aircraft backlog was at a record high of 17,000 and could take three to five years to resolve.
