Aerospace manufacturing in Asia expected to outpace West
By Desmond Wong, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 27 May 2009 1835 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The aerospace manufacturing sector in the Asia Pacific is set to outgrow its Western counterparts as competition increases. And major players in the aerospace industry are strengthening their manufacturing capabilities to meet the expected demand.

Aerospace is a US$300 billion business and competition for a slice of the pie is stiff. And as industry players watch their margins, observers say original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will be drawn towards the Asia Pacific.

Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister, Lim Hng Kiang, said: "The aerospace manufacturing industry in the Asia Pacific is set to grow at a much faster pace than the mature North American and European markets. With greater competition, aerospace OEMs will be more cost conscious and move closer to the growing customer bases in the Asia Pacific."

The minister was speaking at an industry event in Singapore, which has been growing its aircraft maintenance, repair and operations or MRO sector.

With Singapore's MRO capabilities already well-established, industry players say the next step is to look beyond the downturn and to improve the aerospace manufacturing sector.

MRO currently accounts for the bulk of Singapore's aerospace industry's output, but industry players are keen to change that.

Chief executive of the Association of Aerospace Industries (Singapore), Aloysius Tay, said: "Today, we are doing about 90 per cent MRO and 10 per cent manufacturing. So what we want to do is to maintain or grow our MRO sector. However, we want to move our manufacturing base further from 10 per cent, hopefully to achieve 20 to 30 per cent by 2030."

There are plans to help Singapore's small and medium-sized manufacturers accelerate their approval processes to meet the exacting standards of the international aerospace industry.

- CNA/yt