US aviation giant Boeing is in talks to sell up to 500 aircraft to Chinese companies, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, 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 percent in pre-market trades, but up only around 0.2 percent at 11:20 am (1520 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, 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.
In July, the White House said that 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.
Both sides, however, 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.
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.
