Quote:
Originally Posted by J.Thomas
I think you have but unofficially 
And i don't agree on labor costs.
Europe is probably cheaper now.
Boeing of course delivers more jets cause they have more capacity.
Boeing employs 2X and maybe even more workers than Airbus.
I don't know Airbus' profit margin, where'd you get it??
Besides i don't know a single European airline buying lots of Boeings but our airlines are buying A320s in droves 
And i mean France is cheap right?? |
Here are data about the hourly labor costs in manufacturing:
https://www.conference-board.org/ilc...x.cfm?id=28269
In 2013 hourly labor costs in Germany were 35% higher than the ones in the U.S. Hourly labor costs in France were 18% higher. The exchange rate was 1 Euro = 1.33 USD. The exchange rate now is about 1 Euro = 1.11 USD. That means that labor costs in Germany are still 13% higher than in the U.S. Labor costs in France are now 2% lower.
The Airbus Group has about 139,000 employees. About half of them in the passenger aircraft business). Boeing has about 166,000 employees. But Boeing has a bigger defence business. The main reason why Airbus is struggling to build more jets is that the production facilities are spread all over Europe and huge jet parts have to be transported between them.
The distribution of Airbus employees (only the passenger aircraft business):
France: 38%
Germany: 38%
UK: 12%
Spain: 12%
Ryanair (big budget airline from Ireland) solely uses jets from Boeing
British Airways: 46% Boeing / 54% Airbus
Air France: 31% Boeing / 69% Airbus
Lufthansa: 16% Boeing / 79% Airbus
American Airlines: 48% Boeing / 40% Airbus
Delta Airlines: 58% Boeing / 20% Airbus
You can google for profit margins by searching for e.g. "Boeing income statement". American corporations have mostly higher profit margins than European ones.
I work for a company that developes and manufactures electrical traction equipment for buses and trams. We equip trolley buses for Seattle and San Francisco with electric drive systems. But to satisfy these buy American provisions we have to produce the equipment in the U.S. We don't have a production facility in the U.S. We have to rent a facility in the U.S. and send production workers to the U.S. to produce some parts and assembly them in the U.S. The buses itself are produced in the U.S. by the Canadian bus manufacturer New Flyer. That all makes the trolley buses significant more expensive. That means higher costs for the transport authorities in Seattle and San Francisco.
As far as I know, it's almost impossible to export buses from Europe to the U.S. And European buses are a lot more modern than the buses from New Flyer.
The main Daimler Sprinter plant is here in Düsseldorf. About 20% of the vans are exported to the U.S. But the U.S has very high tariffs on completely assembled vans. So the completely assembled vans have to be disassembled, packed in boxes and shipped to Charleston (SC), where the vans are assembled again. It's completely absurd. Daimler will now build a van production facility in Charleston to solve the issue. That will affect about 1,000 production workers here in Düsseldorf, a sixth of the workforce.
The U.S. protects it's manufacturers in many different ways. The reason of the huge trade deficit of the U.S. is not that the U.S. imports to much. The U.S. exports not enough. Not because of high tariffs on U.S. products, but rather because many U.S. products are unsalable in Europe and other parts of the world because of design or quality issues.
For example you can export Italian or German furnitures, door handles, or faucets to the U.S. Because some Americans like European designed products. But it's impossible to sell those products with an American design in Europe. You can export expensive German made windows to the U.S. but it's impossible to export American windows to Europe.
The U.S. and the EU are negotiating TTIP. But the U.S. doesn't want to quit these stupid buy American provisions. I'm actually in favor of free trade agreements, but I'm opposed to TTIP.
The majority here in Germany think that the U.S. will pull us over the barrel in these negotiations. Europeans in general think that the U.S. would never agree to a contract that isn't favorable for the U.S.
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