boeing co. said friday that a planned facility to finish and deliver its best-selling 737 jetliners to chinese customers would be sited at a new industrial development on zhoushan island near shanghai. the plans first announced last year for a plant to paint planes and install seats and other fittings such as in-flight entertainment systems has already stirred controversy after presidential candidate donald trump cited it as an example of u.s. jobs being moved overseas, prompting a sharp push back from boeing. the aerospace company will continue assembling 737s at its plant near seattle but send some planes to china for completion through a joint venture with the state-controlled commercial aircraft corp. of china ltd. a separate boeing-owned delivery center in zhoushan will oversee the handover of the completed planes. boeing has previously said the china facility wouldn<u+2019>t cut employment on the 737 program in washington state, home to its main assembly facilities. <u+201c>the chinese government has identified zhoushan and the region as a focus area for development in its 13th five-year plan, and the facility will be an important part of that plan,<u+201d> boeing said in a statement friday. it gave no details about planned opening dates or employment. the new plant would mark a milestone for boeing<u+2019>s presence in china, where rival airbus industrie se already assembles some of its competing a320 jets at a factory in tianjin. airbus is also establishing one there to finish work on some a330 twin-aisle jets. boeing announced its plan in september 2015 during a state visit by chinese president xi jinping to its seattle factories that coincided with a proposed order for 300 planes. boeing recently upgraded its forecast for china<u+2019>s plane demand to 6,800 new planes with a sticker price of $1 trillion over the next 20 years. boeing and airbus have a roughly 50/50 split of the chinese market and are deepening their ties with the country<u+2019>s aerospace industry. write to doug cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
boeing identifies site for china plant  - wsj
doug cameron