Shares of Boeing fell Tuesday following a report that China has halted the delivery of all its jets to airlines in the country as part of an escalating trade war that has enveloped the world’s two biggest economies.
Boeing is particularly vulnerable to the current trade disputes between America and its trading partners. Unlike many multinational companies, Boeing builds all of its planes at US factories before sending nearly two-thirds of its commercial planes to customers outside the United States. And Boeing is a major part of the US economy, contributing an estimated $79 billion and supporting 1.6 million jobs both directly and indirectly. It has nearly 150,000 US employees of its own.
Boeing has been struggling for six years, racking up $51 billion in operating losses since 2018, the last year it reported an annual profit. China is the world’s largest market for aircraft purchases, with Boeing’s own recent analysis estimating that Chinese airlines are expected to purchase 8,830 new planes over the next 20 years.
Deliveries are crucial to Boeing, since that’s when it gets paid. The company builds the plane first and gets most of its payment after delivering the finished product. Choking off these deliveries is a particularly big blow for Boeing, which had a total of 55 planes in inventory at the end of 2024 that it has not been able to deliver to customers, primarily those in China and India, according to the company.
