Australian aerospace on hunt for Asian business

Australia’s aerospace industry has launched a program designed to capture a bigger slice of fast growing international market, including Asia.

by CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, TOM BALLANTYNE  

November 1st 2014

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A new Australian organization, the Meta National Commercial Aerospace Hub, aims to bring together Australia’s aerospace businesses and industry researchers to better promote Australian commercial aerospace expertise in the region and beyond. Read More »

The “collaborative hub’’ is backed by industry umbrella group, Aviation/Aerospace Australia (A/AA), that wants a bigger share of the world’s US$50 billion aerospace market. Meta managing director, Zoran Angelkovski, said Australia has a $200 million share of the $50 billion global market for metal aviation components, which should be much higher.

“It’s all about generating ideas and projects to create growth and jobs for the aerospace industry,’’ he said. “We want Australian manufacturers to tap into the global supply chain as commercial aircraft production levels are set to double in the next 15 years,” he said.

Australian manufacturers could build COMAC partnership

Deputy chairman of A/AA, Paul Fox, said: “Australia has the right skills, abilities and regulatory standards to capitalize in the aviation sector. Our manufacturers have a strong ability to innovate, solve complex problems and provide solutions for this burgeoning market.”

Asked how Australia could compete with powerful aerospace providers in such countries as China, Singapore, Japan and South Korea he said: “I’m not saying we are going to just walk into their garden. There is a fairly well-trodden pathway. The sooner we start on that pathway the sooner we will find those avenues to deliver our specific services and solutions.”

“We’re in a period of unprecedented growth. Boeing and Airbus have said a number of times that they are going to struggle to keep up with the demand. That opens up new opportunities. We don’t know what the specific opportunities are right now. That’s the first step, to do more research about emerging opportunities and then match our skills and capabilities with that demand.

Fox believed Australia has a good chance of supplying parts to new aircraft being built in the region, including China’s C919, the single-aisle jet being manufactured by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). He has visited the COMAC factory in China and “interestingly Australia, largely through the education sector, is very well connected to COMAC”, he said.

“I met very senior aerospace engineers in the program who have studied at RMIT University (in Melbourne) or other Australian universities or are doing exchange programs in the country. Our regional relationship, largely through the educational sector, hasn’t been fully leveraged. COMAC is a significant target for our capability.”

Meta’s Angelkovski said: “We believe in understanding Australia’s core capabilities and use that capability to tap into the global supply chain. Meta intends to bring these great manufacturers to regional and global attention and demonstrate what is possible in Australia.”

A/AA estimates there are more than 800 Australian firms that generate an annual turnover of $4 billion across the aerospace supply chain. Some of these companies are globally competitive and successfully tapping into the global market, but a collaborative approach to win business is far better than markets being attacked by individuals, said Angelkovski.