BOEING CANCELLATIONS ON THE RISE!

Boeing says it has lost 25 Dreamliner 787 orders in April (Link) bringing the total since Obama was sworn in and a new term began for Christine Gregoire to 57 cancellations according to a piece in the Seattle Times. To make matters worse there are already signs that weakness in the aircraft markets means that Boeing will be slowing down production. The outlook for next year is reaching the point where production is expected to drop to levels not seen since the early 1970’s. So far this year the tally of new orders vs. cancellations across the boards means Boeing is at a minus one year to date. To demonstrate the problem, in April 2008 Boeing scored some 58 new orders for jets. That figure fell to only 17 for April 2009.

Current trends in the US don’t help Boeing much since passenger travel is down an estimated 12% over 2008 and cargo statistics are very scary down some 23% compared to 2008. This may explain the problem with on going sales of the new 777 and 747 freighters.

While things are also slow at Airbus, they are crowing about their April numbers (Link) showing that they are up on Boeing year to date and now the leading air transport manufacturer in the world!

KING 5 Television’s piece (Link) on Leeham and Company’s Scott Hamilton’s report to the stunned audience at a recent meeting of the  Snohomish County Economic Development Council was clearly very bad news for “Obama’s employment recovery” in Snohomish County; because it means that the year 2010 could be worse for Boeing and in fact could mean more MAJOR jobs losses in Everett and Renton.

I will endeavor to keep you posted with on going developments at the Big B Ranch.