One of the most advanced jet engines soon to enter service has just been selected as the sole western power plant for China’s new C919 single-aisle, 150-seat passenger jet. Made by CFM International, which is a 50/50 joint venture between GE and SAFRAN Group, the engine could end up powering more than 2,000 planes over the next 20 years based on estimates by the developer and manufacturer of the C919, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or COMAC. As Bloomberg News reports in its story today, with narrowbody jetliners making up more than 60 percent of all commercial aircraft, “manufacturers have estimated the market for new engines as replacements or on newly designed single-aisle aircraft at $30 billion to $50 billion.”
Up, up and away! The new C919, seen here in this artist’s rendition, is slated to enter service in 2016. Because the new engine will be manufactured at SAFRAN and GE facilities throughout the U.S. and France — including the hot section, or core of the engine, that GE is producing in the U.S. — the deal preserves jobs across the U.S. and E.U. over the next several decades.
November 17, 2009
A flurry of announcements flew out of GE’s Clean Technology Week in China, with new agreements announced today that cover cleaner coal technology, high-speed rail, and locomotive manufacturing. The deals not only further cement the role that GE’s advanced technologies are playing in in the heart of China’s booming economy, they are creating jobs in both countries, including about 500 in the U.S. Today’s deals follow Sunday’s announcement that GE Aviation and China’s AVIC Systems are creating a global avionics joint venture for commercial aircraft, and yesterday’s news that China is buying 300 Evolution Series locomotive assemblies to upgrade its existing fleet. In the video below, Mark Norbom, President and CEO of GE in Greater China, describes the impact that the deals will have.
November 16, 2009
The new joint venture planned between GE Aviation and AVIC Systems of China, which was announced in Beijing yesterday, places GE technology and expertise squarely in an area of explosive growth. As Lorraine Bolsinger, president and CEO for GE’s Aviation Systems business, says in the audio clip below: “With 9 percent traffic growth, and a rising middle class which is largely underserved, China is the world’s fastest growing aviation market and we need to ensure that GE and the United States is part of this growth.”
March 25, 2009
When completed, China’s massive West-to-East gas pipeline will stretch more than 12,000 miles — longer than three Great Walls of China. As one of the largest gas transmission projects in the world, the pipeline is at the heart of China’s energy future – and at the heart of the pipeline is GE Oil & Gas, which has again been selected as the primary supplier of critical compression equipment in a new $300 million deal.
February 23, 2009
Contributor Haijun Ding is GE Energy’s China Country Sales Leader for Thermal Power
On Saturday I was among a small group of GE colleagues, our Chinese partners and some 30 university students to welcome Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, to the Beijing Taiyanggong Thermal Power Plant.