By George Glover and Al Root
Boeing stock rose on Tuesday, with investors hopeful that the breakthrough in trade talks between the U.S. and China means Beijing will lift a ban on the jet maker's deliveries.
Shares climbed 2.5%, closing at $203.24, while the S&P 500 gained 0.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%.
Boeing shares rose 1.9% on Monday after U.S.-China trade tensions eased. Both countries agreed to reduce tariffs for the next 90 days to about 10%. As the trade war escalated, import tariffs for both countries claimed to be north of 100%. Tariffs that high are effectively a trade embargo.
Boeing found itself caught up in the trade war between the world's two largest economies last month, as China prohibited imports and started sending planes back to Seattle. It wasn't clear if the ban was official or simply an economic imperative. Not many airlines can afford to pay an extra $100 million or so for a plane.
Still, Beijing may already have done an about-turn. China has removed its ban on airlines taking deliveries of Boeing Jets, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. Boeing didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron's on Tuesday.
Boeing's commercial jet backlog is about 5,600 jets. The number of Chinese-bound jets in the backlog, including Hong Kong, is about 160, says Vertical Research Partners analyst Rob Stallard. That's a roughly modest 3% of the backlog. China accounts for about 6% of Airbus' backlog, but "undisclosed" customers account for about 12% of each company's backlog. Some of those planes would likely find their way to China.
The current backlog understates the importance of the Chinese market. In 2018, before the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX after two deadly crashes, China accounted for roughly 25% of Boeing's deliveries. What's more, Boeing expects that China will need almost 9,000 planes over the next 20 years to meet the growing demand for air travel.
That's almost 450 planes annually and Boeing would like to, at least, split that with Airbus.
Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com
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May 13, 2025 16:27 ET (20:27 GMT)
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