Hanwha to Supply $300 Million of Aircraft Engine Components to GE

Hanwha Aerospace has signed a $300 million contract to supply cutting-edge aircraft engine components to General Electric, the US conglomerate and one of the leading aircraft engine manufacturers in the world and a top supplier for Boeing.

Hanwha Aerospace will supply GE with 46 types of engine components for GE’s GE9X and LEAP engine.

The GE9X is GE’s most advanced engine and expected to enter commercial production in 2020 while the LEAP is the world’s best-selling aircraft engine.

Hanwha Aerospace will begin delivering six types of engine components specifically for the GE9X, including high-pressure compressors and turbines in 2024.

And for the LEAP engine, Hanwha Aerospace has “promised 40 types of components in 2025”.

The GE9X, the world’s largest turbofan engine, is being developed for the Boeing 777X. (Photo Credit: GE)

The large GE contract for the GE9X components is “vital” for Hanwha Aerospace’s strategy, says the company. It will allow Hanwha Aerospace to secure its long-term business expansion plans and pursue other avenues of growth for the future.

A Hanwha Aerospace spokesperson said that Hanwha is being recognized for its global manufacturing capabilities.

The company’s flagship plant in Changwon is South Korea’s only smart factory that can build aircraft engine components but it also has a production plant in Vietnam that began operations last year.

The Hanwha Aerospace spokesperson noted that the company has long been a partner of GE because of Hanwha’s quality and technology.

The Hanwha Aerospace spokesperson also said with the latest supply contract, Hanwha raised its global status as an aircraft engine component company.

Hanwha Aerospace has been steadily growing its aircraft engine business to become a globally recognized aircraft engine component manufacturer by strengthening its partnerships with all of the top three aircraft engine manufacturers in the world: GE, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce.

In 2015, Hanwha Aerospace entered into a revenue-sharing partnership with Pratt & Whitney to supply components for the GTF engine.

Recently, Hanwha Aerospace signed a $1 billion contract with Rolls-Royce.

The supply contracts with these three companies, in just the last five years, are worth more than $20.1 billion.

And with the recent acquisition of EDAC Technologies, an American aircraft engine component manufacturer, now operating as Hanwha Aerospace USA, the company is “poised to become the leading aircraft engine manufacturer and the revenue-sharing partner of choice, globally”, it claims.

The statistics from Flight International predicts that over the next two decades, 42,800 cargo and civilian aircraft will be delivered worldwide. This means that at least 86,599 new engines will be delivered in the global market by 2035, and the number of active engines will grow from the current 60,000 to about 100,000. With the number expected to jump from 28,500 to 61,000 by 2035, especially in the region of Asia Pacific, which is anticipated to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The "Made in China 2025" issued by the State Council clearly proposed to "establish an industrial system for the independent development of engines", and during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China launched a major special project for aviation engines and gas turbines. Today, the Chinese aviation industry continues to exert its strength and is closing the gap with world-class engines. In the worldwide stage, the development and breakthrough of aircraft engine requires wide range of solutions and multi-disciplinary collaboration of suppliers, transnational discussion and the groundbreaking technology exploitation. There are still some technical difficulties that China is facing such as the titanium alloy or composite material of aircraft engine, the whole leaf disk manufacturing and repair technology, the manufacturing technology of single-crystal hollow turbine blade etc. Furthermore, there are some other technology will also be discussed and applied in the aviation engine design and manufacturing such as 3D Printing, Digital twin technology.

Commercial Aero Engine Shanghai International Forum, based on China National Special Project of Aero Engine & Gas Turbine, is located in Shanghai, China. This forum aims to support aero engine industry development through information exchanges and business cooperation. Initiated by Shanghai Society of Aeronautics and AECC Commercial Aircraft Engine Co., Ltd., this annual forum has been successfully held in the past four years. The 5^th Annual Commercial Aero Engine Shanghai International Forum will be held on March 25^th - 26^th, 2020, in Shanghai.

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