US lifts license suspensions for GE jet engines to China's COMAC
GE did not respond to an email request for comment, nor did the Commerce Department.
The license suspensions were among a wide swathe of new restrictions imposed on US exports to China in recent weeks, as the trade war between the world's two biggest economies moved from retaliatory tariffs to disrupting each other's supply chains.
Restrictions also have been lifted this week on other sectors, including chip design software and ethane, in a sign of further de-escalating trade tensions.
The licenses for GE Aerospace affect engines for China's state-owned aerospace manufacturer COMAC, which is developing commercial planes to compete with dominant planemakers Airbus and Boeing.
The licenses are to ship Leap-1C engines to COMAC for its C919 single-aisle aircraft, and GE's CF34 engine for COMAC's C909 regional jet, according to the person familiar, who declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
The LEAP 1-C engines are the product of a joint venture between GE Aerospace and France's Safran.
The C919 is made in China but many of its components come from overseas.
Reuters could not immediately determine which other aerospace companies may have been affected by the Commerce Department's unwinding of restrictions. REUTERS
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AsiaOne
2 days ago
- AsiaOne
Regulators warned Air India Express about delay on Airbus engine fix, forging records, Asia News
NEW DELHI — India's aviation watchdog reprimanded Air India's budget carrier in March for not timely changing engine parts of an Airbus A320 as directed by European Union's aviation safety agency, and falsifying records to show compliance, a government memo showed. In a statement, Air India Express told Reuters it acknowledged the error to the Indian watchdog and undertook "remedial action and preventive measures". Air India has been under intense scrutiny since the June Boeing Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad which killed all but one of the 242 people onboard. The world's worst aviation disaster in a decade is still being investigated. The engine issue in the Air India Express' Airbus was raised on Tuesday (March 18), months before the crash. But the regulator has this year also warned parent Air India for breaching rules for flying three Airbus planes with overdue checks on escape slides, and in June warned it about "serious violations" of pilot duty timings. Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group. It has more than 115 aircraft and flies to more than 50 destinations, with 500 daily flights. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency in 2023 issued an airworthiness directive to address a "potential unsafe condition" on CFM International LEAP-1A engines, asking for replacement of some components such as engine seals and rotating parts, saying some manufacturing deficiencies had been found. The agency's directive said "this condition, if not corrected, could lead to failure of affected parts, possibly resulting in high energy debris release, with consequent damage to, and reduced control of, the aeroplane". The Indian government's confidential memo in March sent to the airline, seen by Reuters, said that surveillance by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed the parts modification "was not complied" on an engine of an Airbus A320 "within the prescribed time limit". "In order to show that the work has been carried out within the prescribed limits, the AMOS records have apparently been altered/forged," the memo added, referring to the Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Operating System software used by airlines to manage maintenance and airworthiness. The "mandatory" modification was required on Air India Express' VT-ATD plane, the memo added. That plane typically flies on domestic routes and some international destinations such as Dubai and Muscat, according to the AirNav Radar website. The lapse "indicates that accountable manager has failed to ensure quality control," it added. Air India Express told Reuters its technical team missed the scheduled implementation date for parts replacement due to the migration of records on its monitoring software, and fixed the problem soon after it was identified. It did not give dates of compliance or directly address DGCA's comment about records being altered, but said that after the March memo it took "necessary administrative actions", which included removing the quality manager from their position and suspending the deputy continuing airworthiness manager. The DGCA and the European safety agency did not respond to Reuters queries. Airbus and CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and Safran, also did not respond. The lapse was first flagged during a DGCA audit in October 2024 and the plane in question took only a few trips after it was supposed to replace the CFM engine parts, a source with direct knowledge said. "Such issues should be fixed immediately. It's a grave mistake. The risk increases when you are flying over sea or near restricted airpsace," said Vibhuti Singh, a former legal expert at the India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau. The Indian government told parliament in February that authorities warned or fined airlines in 23 instances for safety violations last year. Three of those cases involved Air India Express, and eight Air India. [[nid:719732]]
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business Times
US lifts license suspensions for GE jet engines to China's COMAC
THE US Department of Commerce informed GE Aerospace on Thursday that it was once again allowed to ship jet engines to China's COMAC, lifting license suspensions issued several weeks ago, according to a person familiar with the matter. GE did not respond to an email request for comment, nor did the Commerce Department. The license suspensions were among a wide swathe of new restrictions imposed on US exports to China in recent weeks, as the trade war between the world's two biggest economies moved from retaliatory tariffs to disrupting each other's supply chains. Restrictions also have been lifted this week on other sectors, including chip design software and ethane, in a sign of further de-escalating trade tensions. The licenses for GE Aerospace affect engines for China's state-owned aerospace manufacturer COMAC, which is developing commercial planes to compete with dominant planemakers Airbus and Boeing. The licenses are to ship Leap-1C engines to COMAC for its C919 single-aisle aircraft, and GE's CF34 engine for COMAC's C909 regional jet, according to the person familiar, who declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak publicly. The LEAP 1-C engines are the product of a joint venture between GE Aerospace and France's Safran. The C919 is made in China but many of its components come from overseas. Reuters could not immediately determine which other aerospace companies may have been affected by the Commerce Department's unwinding of restrictions. REUTERS
AsiaOne
3 days ago
- AsiaOne
As trade war truce with China holds, US lifts curbs for chip design software and ethane, World News
NEW YORK — The United States has lifted restrictions on exports to China for chip design software developers and ethane producers, a further sign of de-escalating US-Sino trade tensions including concessions from Beijing over rare earths. Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems and Siemens, three of the world's largest electronic design automation (EDA) software developers, said on Wednesday (July 2) they are restoring access to their software and technology for customers in China. Earlier in the day, the US also sent letters to ethane producers to rescind a restrictive licensing requirement on exports to China imposed in late May and June. The restrictions on EDA software developers and ethane producers were just some of many countermeasures imposed by US President Donald Trump's administration in response to China's export suspension of rare earths and related magnets in April. Beijing's move on rare earths, part of retaliation against Trump's earlier tariffs this year, has upended supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors. The issue threatened to scupper a bilateral trade deal. On Friday, China's commerce ministry said that following talks with the US, the two sides have confirmed a framework under which China will review export applications for controlled items while the US will cancel corresponding restrictive measures. "The US have escalated to de-escalate. They put restrictions on many more items in order to get the Chinese to back off on rare earths," according to a source familiar with discussions inside the US government. "As the US and China continue to hold to this framework agreement, we're gonna see a lot of these restrictions go away. Going back to a status quo, where we were at in Feb/March," said the source who was not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. EDA Relief Siemens said in a statement that it has resumed sales and support for Chinese customers after it was recently notified by the US Department of Commerce that export control restrictions for customers in China were no longer in place. Its shares rose 1.7 per cent after market open on Thursday. Synopsys expects to complete system updates to restore access and support to Chinese customers within three business days, according to a company letter to staff seen by Reuters. The US Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Long-term restrictions on Chinese access to EDA software would have significantly hampered China's chip design industry. Synopsys, Cadence and Siemens command more than 70 per cent of China's EDA market, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported in April. It was not immediately clear if other countermeasures imposed by the US have been lifted. These include the suspension of licenses for GE Aerospace to ship jet engines for the C919 aircraft of Chinese airplane maker COMAC and for nuclear equipment suppliers to sell to Chinese power plants. [[nid:718997]]
