Bombardier Inc. is strengthening its ties to China on the aerospace front with the decision to hand the mandate to make a "significant section" of its Q400 turboprop's fuselage to one of its parts suppliers in that country.
Montreal-based Bombardier has signed an agreement with Shenyang Aircraft Co. for the manufacture of the fuselage section, Bombardier spokesman John-Paul Macdonald confirmed yesterday.
Bombardier will formally announce the deal at an event scheduled for today at the Farnborough International Airshow in England, he said.
The company will shift the fuselage work from its current supplier -- Mitsubushi Heavy Industries of Japan -- to Shenyang as well as to Bombardier's aerospace facility in Belfast, Mr. Macdonald said in a telephone interview from Britain.
"A significant section of the fuselage is going to [Shenyang]and the remainder of the fuselage elements are going to Belfast," he said.
Final assembly of the Q400 is done at Bombardier's Toronto-area facility.
Shenyang and other Chinese suppliers have, over the years, made mostly small components for Bombardier.
Making a key fuselage part is a big step up for Shenyang, which has for many years made doors for Bombardier's Q series of propeller-powered turboprop aircraft.
Mr. Macdonald said Bombardier routinely moves work among its dozens of suppliers around the world and the new mandate for Shenyang is no exception.
Bombardier had been considering shifting production of its fuselage components from Japan to lower-cost Asian states such as China, Indonesia and Taiwan, according to a trade-industry report published more than a year ago.
But the move nevertheless indicates that Bombardier is serious about forging closer ties with China, one of the world's biggest and fastest growing economies.
Bombardier has made no secret of its eagerness to become an important player in China, and has made much progress as a major supplier of passenger-rail rolling stock, equipment and services.
Last year, the company signed a 20-year agreement with China's Ministry of Railways that makes its joint venture -- Bombardier Sifang Power -- a preferred supplier.
Talks in past years for a joint venture with the Chinese to make a regional jet in that country fell through.
There were also published reports last year that Bombardier was in talks with Shenyang over a joint venture to share the risk of making the proposed 110-to-130-seat C Series jet.
Bombardier shelved the C Series project in January after failing to win over a launch customer, but the head of its aerospace division -- Pierre Beaudoin -- has said the company continues to seek out potential risk-sharing partners around the world interested in making the plane.
Shenyang has been a Bombardier supplier for more than 10 years.
The surging cost of fuel has helped boost sales of the once-moribund turboprop.
Bombardier officials have said the company is looking at the possibility of producing a stretched version of the Q400 that would seat up to 90 people.
The standard Q400 seats 68 to 78 passengers. Bombardier also makes regional jets, business jets and water bombers.
Bertrand Marotte