China stares down Boeing parts shortage while Comac stockpiles

BEIJING – China is hunkering down for a trade war winter without American-made jets and aircraft parts.

With China

banning Boeing jets

as part of its retaliation to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, local airlines now face the issue of repairing and maintaining hundreds of aircraft from the US manufacturer in their current fleets.

They also have to find new jets to make up for the Boeing shortfall, no small task given that Airbus’ production capacity is constrained and local manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac) relies on US-made engines.

For now, airlines and leasing firms have built up a buffer of spare parts over the past couple of years – both from planemakers and from buying up older aircraft – that should help the industry weather the near-term need, people familiar with the matter said.

Comac has also stockpiled engines to build dozens of planes IN 2025, one of the people said, while Chinese government officials are considering asking Airbus to supply any new jets with an extra set of engines, other people familiar with the matter said.

Even if those engines may have been made by US companies or have US components, they would not be levied if they arrive attached to a plane from a French manufacturer, people familiar with Beijing’s thinking said, asking for anonymity to discuss private matters.

Representatives for Comac did not respond to a request for comment.

Yet, these are short-term fixes that underscore how aircraft represent a huge vulnerability for China’s economy, and an area where it is still highly reliant on US and Western industrial technology.

The weakness is such that some analysts on April 15 suggested the pause in deliveries may be more of a negotiating tactic.

“We would be surprised if the delay were extended, considering the importance of US parts for the Chinese fleet,” RBC Capital Markets analysts led by Mr Ken Herbert said.

Any restriction on the import of new aircraft parts needed to support its existing fleet would be “difficult for China to maintain for an extended period”.

China on April 11

unveiled retaliatory tariffs

of 125 per cent on American goods effective April 12, in the latest escalation that started when Mr Trump imposed a US surcharge aimed at lowering America’s trade deficit.

Including a 20 per cent levy assessed earlier in 2025 over China’s role in fentanyl trafficking, the rate of US tariffs on China

is now 145 per cent

.

Mr Trump on April 15 blasted China for reneging on “the big Boeing deal” signed during his first administration and called on China to reach out to him in order to kick off negotiations to resolve the trade fight.

Comac reliance

Comac’s engine stockpile is largely due to the fact it has been anticipating orders later in 2025 from Hong Kong, Middle East and Vietnamese carriers, one of the people said.

The Chinese maker’s C919

is a single-aisle jet designed to compete with the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families and has a capacity for 158 to 192 passengers.

It uses CFM International Leap-1C engines and avionics from Honeywell International and Rockwell Collins, now part of Collins Aerospace, a Raytheon Technologies company. CFM is a joint venture between GE and France’s Safran.

The hydraulic systems for its landing gear come from Parker Aerospace in the US, while some of its cabin systems are from Eaton, which is headquartered in Dublin.

Comac’s C929 is a twin-aisle commercial aircraft that is intended to go up against Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A330neo in the long-haul market.

Comac also has the ARJ21, or recently renamed C909, jet, a smaller turbofan model that is capable of carrying up to 97 passengers and flying shorter hops.

It is used by a handful of Chinese carriers, as well as TransNusa Airlines in Indonesia.

The C929 is still in development, and the C919 has not been given the green light by other aviation safety regulators to fly outside of China or Hong Kong, meaning it is only used by Chinese airlines domestically.

Singapore workaround

According to aviation data provider Cirium, Boeing has delivered 13 737 Max planes and three 787s to China so far in 2025, with 28 Max jets and one 787 on the scheduled for the rest of 2025.

“Officially, Chinese operators account for 2 per cent of Boeing’s backlog in units, though there are likely some aircraft for China in the 12 per cent of the backlog for which the buyer is not disclosed,” Cirium analysts wrote earlier in April.

Ultimately, analysts believe that Chinese airlines will have to find a way to access US-made aircraft parts again, irrespective of the trade war.

RBC’s Mr Herbert said Singapore, which is an aviation hub and home to a number of aircraft maintenance shops, could fill the gap.

“Singapore could provide a work-around for delivery of US aircraft parts and services in China,” he wrote in an April 15 note. BLOOMBERG