Airbus may move some manufacturing outside Europe because of the continuing drop in the value of the dollar.
The European company builds its aircraft in Europe - where the strong euro means costs are high ” but sells them in dollars, so a weak greenback is hitting earnings badly.
According to reports in the French media, Airbus parent company, EADS,' chief executive, Louis Gallois, is quoted as saying: ”We don”t have a choice.
"There is a deep crisis afflicting a certain number of industries that is due solely to the fact that the Americans are following a policy that will mean a never-ending decline in the dollar.”
Gallois points out it”s a ”problem with a political dimension”, and called for a G7 meeting devoted to the exchange rate problem. US officials insist they want a strong dollar for their economy, but there is suspicion in European industrial circles that Washington isn”t too concerned because a falling dollar means rising value for American exports.
EADS says that each ten cent rise in the value of the dollar costs the group ”1bn (”712m) in earnings. Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said last month this is ”life-threatening” for the company, which is already being forced to cut 10,000 jobs.
Airbus is already building a plant in China to produce the best-selling A320 single-aisle jet for the booming Asian market. It”s now looking at manufacturing in Mobile, Alabama, in the southern US, but this depends on whether it beats Boeing to a multibillion dollar government contract to build air-to-air refueling planes for the US air force.