Assembly Planbook - March 2009 - (Page 21) Xian Aircraft to Begin Testing A320 Wings TOULOUSE, France—Airbus and Xian Aircraft Industry Co. (XAC—Tianjin, China) have signed a cooperation agreement whereby XAC will both manufacture and test the wings and wingbox assemblies used on any A320 commercial jets assembled in China. Currently, the wingbox structures are assembled at an Airbus facility in Broughton, UK, and then shipped to China for final assembly. According to the new agreement, all wing assembly and testing will be done in Tianjin in a facility adjacent to XAC’s A320 FALC final assembly plant. The latter ramped up in 2008 and is a Siemens Investing Another $190 Million in China MUNICH, Germany—After announcing in 2006 that it would invest $1.3 billion in China by 2010, Siemens AG is bumping up that figure by another $190 million to tap into the country’s demand for new energy infrastructure. “China is our largest market after Germany and the United States, and a key driver of our worldwide business. With the planned investments, we want to further expand our presence in this vital market,” says Siemens CEO Peter Loscher. According to Richard Hausmann, CEO of Siemens’ Chinese subsidiary, “Although overall energy consumption in ~ XYZO Robotic System Automatically Identifies, Locates, Registers, and Drives Xian Aircraft Industry Co. will soon be both testing and manufacturing the wings and wingbox assemblies that it uses to assemble A320 commercial jets in China. wholly owned subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Corp. (Beijing). “With this project, Airbus is fulfilling its support to the cooperation agreement regarding A320 China wing manufacture,” says Airbus senior vice president Brian Fleet. “Having this facility so close to the FALC is the most efficient industrial solution. It will save transportation costs, reduce lead time and risks in handling, and ensure quicker response time to our customers.” China is slowing down in the course of the economic downturn, the need for environmental friendly and efficient technologies is unchanged in order to replace old and environmentally critical technologies and to secure a safe power distribution.” Siemens is already one of the largest foreign-based employers in China, with over 40,000 employees in more than 90 companies and 60 regional offices. In 2008, Siemens’ revenues in China came to slightly less than $6.3 billion. o sales@visumatic.com www.visumatic.com 859.255.7907 www.assemblymag.com March 2009 / ASSE M B LY 21 http://www.visumatic.com http://www.visumatic.com http://www.assemblymag.com
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