From 7-9 July in Northwest China, the Shenyang Municipal Government took the bold step of inviting representatives from major foreign aerospace players and some foreign governments to participate in the first Asian Aerospace Shenyang Congress, managed by Reed Exhibitions as an additional event linked with the Hong Kong Asian Aerospace expo in September. This move follows the launch last year of the Shenyang National Aviation and High Technology Industrial Base (SNAHTIB) which has plans for an industrial development extending over some 127km surrounding Shenyang's Taoxian airport and including aspects of series production, research and technology and even the social infrastructure to support an influx of a new professional population for this aerospace community. AVIC have committed some RMB 10billion (about €1billion) to this project which aims to double the aerospace sector turnover in this region within five years. As a city, Shenyang has the appearance, as with much of the rest of mainland China, of one which is expanding very fast within the turmoil of the communist/capitalist dichotomy. Following its exposure as a co-hosting city for the 2008 Olympics there is visible inward industrial and commercial investment, including western household names such as Tesco, KFC, and Pizza Hut. A good example of existing collaboration with western companies is Bombardier who sees high demand in the internal Chinese market for Regional aircraft in the 60-149 seat class. Bombardier announced in 2006 that it would be building forward and aft Q400 fuselage barrel sections in China. Now it is doing just that, and expanding that relationship to be a risk sharing partner on the design and manufacture of the CSeries centre fuselage, centre wing box and doors. The CSeries will have advanced aluminium fuselage sections incorporating the latest generation of aluminium lithium alloys. The initial technical and supply chain actions for the COMAC C919 single aisle trunkliner programme are very much at the top of the agenda and form a key part of the Chinese vision of its future civil aerospace industry. The Chinese have a very definite national agenda driving the aerospace industry forward. Whilst it is clear that China has the will and the drive to achieve a technical success, it is less obvious how this is going to be a commercial success. To achieve a commercial success will require a softening of the Sino-centric viewpoint and so China really does have to be open for business. In the last couple of years the reorganisation of the Chinese civil aerospace industry has brought the country to the point of having a contender for the tradition business taken by Boeing and Airbus. It only needs to look at the globalised partnering efforts of these players to see the way it must proceed. SBAC is organising another mission to China in September, visiting Beijing and Shenyang, and including some very significant exposure to the Shenyang development project through contact with SNAHTIB and the Shenyang Aircraft Company. China is still desperate for investment of technology capability from overseas partners but it could possibly benefit more from additional effort to achieve alignment with the global aerospace supply chain models. www.aashenyangcongress.com
