China's Tianjin becomes major production base for Airbus

North China's Tianjin Municipality has become a major production base for European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. 2024 marks the 15th anniversary of the first A320 family aircraft delivered by the Airbus Tianjin Delivery Center, with the total number of deliveries amounting to 763 as of the end of May.

General Manager of the Airbus Tianjin Delivery Center Christoph Schrempp has witnessed the rapid expansion of Airbus' business in Tianjin.

"Indeed, I was a lucky man as I had an opportunity in June 2013 already to make a kind of look-and-see trip to Tianjin and to China. So, that was at that point in time definitely my first contact with Tianjin. It left a quite positive impression and I was very much also impressed by the modern city I found there in Tianjin," said Schrempp.

In September 2008, Airbus' A320 Family Final Assembly Line Asia in Tianjin (FALA Tianjin) was officially put into operation, which is the first civil aircraft final assembly line set up by the company outside Europe. Nine months later, the first A320 family aircraft assembled in Tianjin rolled off the production line and was delivered to its customer.

In September 2017, Schrempp and his team successfully delivered the A330 aircraft to Tianjin Airlines, marking a new milestone for Airbus Tianjin.

In 2021, Airbus and its Chinese partners signed an agreement on expanding and upgrading the production capacity of the FALA Tianjin, enabling the current A320 family assembly facilities to produce A321 aircraft, and in March 2023, the first A321 aircraft was delivered.

Schrempp said he is confident that Airbus' China operation will continue to expand given the fast growth of its business in Tianjin.

"We're going to use to partially replace all the aircraft by the more economical and most advanced A321 family aircraft, for example, but also to grow in terms of having new routes operated. We are also developed our customer base," said Schrempp.

The FALA Tianjin has now become one of Airbus' most important production lines globally, and the company is about to complete the construction of its second production line in Tianjin, further enhancing the assembly capabilities for A320 aircraft.

China's Tianjin becomes major production base for Airbus

The Federal Reserve of the United States released its latest monetary policy meeting minutes on Wednesday, which hinted the U.S. central bank could cut interest rates in September.

The minutes revealed that "the vast majority" of participants at the July 30-31 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting thought that it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting if economic data come in as expected.

Noting that upside risks to the inflation outlook have diminished while downside risks to employment have increased, the policymakers said that reducing policy restraint too late or too little could unduly weaken economic activity or employment.

The minutes said that the Fed moves closer to a first interest rate reduction next month, with at least one more cut later in the year, and further policy easing next year.

During the meeting, participants also discussed risks and uncertainties around economic outlook, according to the minutes.

US Fed expected to cut interest rates in Sept