Second Boeing Jet Starts Return from China, Tracker Shows
A second Boeing jet intended for use by a Chinese airline was heading back to the US on Monday, flight tracking data showed, in what appears to be another victim of the tit-for-tat bilateral tariffs launched by President Donald Trump in his global trade offensive.
The 737 MAX 8 landed in the US territory of Guam on Monday, after leaving Boeing's Zhoushan completion center near Shanghai, data from flight tracking website AirNav Radar showed.
Guam is one of the stops such flights make on the 5,000-mile (8,000-km) journey across the Pacific between Boeing's US production hub in Seattle and the Zhoushan completion center, where planes are ferried by Boeing for final work and delivery to a Chinese carrier.
On Sunday a 737 MAX painted with the livery for China's Xiamen Airlines made the return journey from Zhoushan and landed at Seattle's Boeing Field.
It is not clear which party made the decision for the two aircraft to return to the US.
Boeing could find a replacement buyer in Malaysia Airlines, however, which has said it was talking to the manufacturer about acquiring jets that may become available should Chinese airlines stop taking deliveries.
Trump this month raised baseline tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%. In retaliation, China has imposed a 125% tariff on US goods. A Chinese airline taking delivery of a Boeing jet could be crippled by the tariffs, given that a new 737 MAX has a market value of around $55 million, according to IBA, an aviation consultancy.
The plane flew from Seattle to Zhoushan just under a month ago.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The return of the 737 MAX jets, Boeing's best-selling model, is the latest sign of disruption to new aircraft deliveries from a breakdown in the aerospace industry's decades-old duty-free status.
The tariff war and apparent U-turn over deliveries comes as Boeing has been recovering from an almost five-year import freeze on 737 MAX jets and a previous round of trade tensions.
Confusion over changing tariffs could leave many aircraft deliveries in limbo, with some airline CEOs saying they would defer delivery of planes rather than pay duties, analysts say.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
4 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
US Labor Market Slows Despite Job Adds in May
The United States added 139,000 jobs in May, more than expected but pointing to a labor market that continues to slow. The employment data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics exceeded forecasts for about 120,000 payroll gains but marked a decline from the revised 147,000 jobs added in April. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%, remaining near historic lows. Stocks surged at Friday's open, with all three major indexes gaining about 1%. In return, US government borrowing costs climbed as investors anticipated the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates higher for longer, making it less attractive to hold US debt. The BLS report showed job losses in the federal government continued to pile up, with that sector shedding 22,000 roles in May alone. The federal workforce is down by 59,000 since January, largely due to sweeping cuts by the Trump administration and multibillionaire tech executive Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency project. Even as the economy continued to add jobs at a relatively steady clip last month, the report showed other signs of a weakening labor market. The ratio of employed workers to the total population fell to 59.7%, its lowest since the pandemic. An alternative measure of unemployment that includes 'discouraged' workers, or those who have stopped looking for work, returned to a post-pandemic high of 4.5%. But President Donald Trump cheered the numbers, posting on his Truth Social platform Friday morning: 'AMERICA IS HOT! SIX MONTHS AGO IT WAS COLD AS ICE! BORDER IS CLOSED, PRICES ARE DOWN. WAGES ARE UP!' Trump had urged Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to slash interest rates by a full percentage point. 'Too Late' at the Fed is a disaster!' Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. In reality, employers added 212,000 jobs in November, unemployment was at 4.1%, the 12-month average of hourly pay gains have softened from nearly 4.2% then to 3.9% in May, and both the labor force participation rate and the employment-to-population ratio were slightly higher. Only consumer prices have meaningfully cooled, ticking down from an annual inflation rate of 2.7% in November to 2.3% in April, the latest month with available data. Analysts at Capital Economics called the May jobs report 'not as good as it looks.' Still, they wrote in a note Friday, 'it shows that tariffs are having little negative impact' and added that the Federal Reserve is likely to continue holding interest rates steady 'while it assesses the effects of policy changes on the economy.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
4 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Iran Orders Material from China to Produce 800 Ballistic Missiles
Iran has ordered thousands of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China, people familiar with the transaction told The Wall Street Journal, seeking to rebuild its military prowess as it discusses the future of its nuclear program with the US. The report, which cited people familiar with the transaction, said Tehran had ordered enough ammonium perchlorate to potentially manufacture up to 800 missiles. It said the material is used to produce solid-fuel missiles. 'Shipments of ammonium perchlorate are expected to reach Iran in coming months and could fuel hundreds of ballistic missiles,' the people said. Some of the material would likely be sent to militias in the region aligned with Iran, including Houthis in Yemen. According to the Journal, Iran's drive to expand its missile stockpile and strengthen its regional proxies comes as it continues to enrich uranium to levels just below weapons grade and has refused to place limits on its missile development as part of nuclear negotiations. President Donald Trump said he discussed the issue during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin 'Time is running out on Iran's decision pertaining to nuclear weapons,' Trump wrote Wednesday in a social-media post. Part of rebuilding Iran's 'Axis of Resistance' The shipment of ammonium perchlorate is part of Iran's broader efforts to rebuild its so-called "Axis of Resistance" network. The ammonium perchlorate was ordered by an Iranian entity called Pishgaman Tejarat Rafi Novin Co. from the Hong Kong-based Lion Commodities Holdings Ltd, the Journal reported. China's Foreign Ministry told the Journal that Beijing was unaware of a contract for such a shipment. 'The Chinese side has always exercised strict control over dual-use items in accordance with China's export control laws and regulations and its international obligations,' said the spokesperson. Iran has been looking for ways to rebuild its network of regional proxies, the so-called Axis of Resistance, after Israel struck Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Assad regime in Syria. While US and Israeli strikes have damaged the Houthis' capabilities in Yemen, they continue to periodically launch missiles at Israel. The Journal said that beyond supporting regional militias, Iran has also reportedly transferred ballistic missiles to Shiite militia groups in Iraq, which have previously targeted both US and Israeli forces in the region. Earlier this year, Iranian ships docked in China to load over 1,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, a precursor for ammonium perchlorate. The material was delivered to Iranian ports in mid-February and late March, according to shipping trackers. This quantity of sodium perchlorate is said to be enough to fuel around 260 short-range missiles. The new order for ammonium perchlorate, which was placed months before President Trump's proposed nuclear talks with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in early March, could supply Iran with enough material to produce approximately 800 missiles, one official estimated. In response to Iran's missile activities, the US Treasury Department sanctioned six individuals and six entities from both Iran and China on April 29 for their involvement in procuring ballistic missile propellant ingredients. Two weeks later, the Treasury expanded these sanctions to include additional Chinese and Hong Kong entities. It added sodium perchlorate to its list of materials linked to Iran's military, nuclear, and missile activities. A State Department official said, 'Chinese entities and individuals have provided support to Iran's ballistic missile program, as well as to the Houthis' missile and UAV production efforts, which is why we continue to identify and sanction them.' Possible Threats Fabian Hinz, a military expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said 'Iran likely needs material from abroad to avoid bottlenecks in its domestic production capabilities.' However, storing such materials poses significant risks. In April, a deadly explosion at Shahid Rajaee port, Iran's key container hub, killed dozens. State media attributed the blast to the mishandling of explosive materials by a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force. An official confirmed that some of the previously imported sodium perchlorate was destroyed in the incident. 'These substances are a major fire and explosive hazard,' Hinz warned. 'Iran's defense industrial complex does not have a strong track record in ensuring safety standards.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
8 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Says Fresh US-China Trade Talks in London Next Week
US President Donald Trump announced Friday a new round of trade talks with China in London next week, a day after calling Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a bid to end a bitter battle over tariffs. The talks in the British capital on Monday will mark the second round of such negotiations between the world's two biggest economies since Trump launched his trade war this year. "The meeting should go very well," said Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform. The president added that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would meet the Chinese team. The first talks between Washington and Beijing since Trump slapped levies on allies and adversaries alike took place in Geneva last month. While Trump had imposed a sweeping 10 percent duty on imports from most trading partners, rates on Chinese goods rocketed as both countries engaged in an escalating tariffs battle. In April, additional US tariffs on many Chinese products hit 145 percent while China hit back with countermeasures of 125 percent. Following the talks last month, both sides agreed to temporarily bring down the levels, with US tariffs cooling to 30 percent and China's levies at 10 percent. But this temporary halt is expected to expire in early August and Trump last week accused China of violating the pact, underscoring deeper differences on both sides. US officials have accused China of slow-walking export approvals of critical minerals and rare earth magnets, a key issue behind Trump's recent remarks. While Trump's long-awaited phone call with Xi this week likely paved the way for further high-level trade talks, a swift resolution to the tariffs impasse remains uncertain.
