Dubai, November 7

Boeing expects to announce new industrial partnerships with an emphasis on defence at the Dubai Airshow, expanding on tie-ups in commercial aerospace, executives said today.

The US planemaker signed a strategic agreement with Abu Dhabi state-owned investment fund Mubadala in 2009 and boosted it with a $2.5 billion composites production deal in 2013.

It has a similar strategic deal in place with India’s Tata Sons. Gulf-based sources have said they expect Boeing to expand its ties with both companies at the November 8-12 air show.

“There will be a couple of announcements at the show related to increased partnerships and I’ll leave it at that,” Bernard Dunn, president of Boeing Middle East, North Africa and Turkey told a news conference.

Boeing predicts strong demand for commercial jets in the Middle East despite a slowdown in orders expected at this year’s air show, following record orders at the last edition in 2013.

It expects the Middle East to require 3,180 new airplanes worth $730 billion over next 20 years, about a third of which are already in the order books of Boeing and Airbus.

The US firm said it sees room to increase single-aisle jet production rates after Airbus recently announced a 20 per cent increase in planned production to 60 aircraft a month from 2019. Boeing plans to raise output of its 737 model to 47 a month in 2017 and then 52 a month in 2018, compared with 42 a month now.

“It has been a very strong and resilient marketplace,” said Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “Is there a potential for our rates to go up? There is a potential if the market is there and we are assessing that.”

He declined to say when Boeing expected to make a decision.