Aerospace

Data: Airbus, Boeing
US aircraft manufacturer Boeing delivered 64 commercial jets to its customers in March, making it the second best month in the past two years after the end-of-year push in December 2022.
The majority, 52 of the aircraft, were its 737 MAX jets as it prepares to ramp up production, with a new line launching in Everett. Boeing is preparing to increase its MAX production soon from its current rate of 31 planes per month, and aims to deliver more than 400 of the MAX jets to customers this year. In March it made its first 767 delivery of the year after rectifying a fuel tank problem that had paused deliveries in the first two months .
Altogether in Q1 2023 Boeing delivered 130 aircraft, just ahead of its European rival Airbus, on 127 deliveries in Q1. In March Airbus deliveries were just three behind Boeing, at 61 planes, after both manufacturers delivered 66 jets each in January-February.
Airbus’s best-selling single aisle jets, new engine option, dominated its March deliveries, including 25 A20 neo and 6 A321 neo aircraft. In all of Q1 2023 Airbus delivered just five each of its new generation A330-900 and A350-900 widebody jets.
Automotive
China’s vehicle production is recovering from lockdowns, with output up 15.3% in March this year vs March 2022, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
The trend in y-o-y lag corrected from 34.3% in January to 14.5% in January-February to just 4.2% down for Q1 2023 vs Q1 2022 to 6.2m vehicles. Sales were down 6.7% q-o-q to 6.08m cars and commercial vehicles, according to CAAM, driven by a 70.6% rise in exports. In Q1 2023 for the first time Chinese cars in the Russian market overtook the leading domestic brand Lada, as Russian production slumped, and western car makers exited Russia. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Chinese cars’ share of Russian sales have grown from c. 10% to c.40%.

Data: OICA
Russian output fell by 61% in 2022, while output in Ukraine has all but ground to a halt, with just 1,490 cars made, according to data compiled by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA). Global vehicle production (including passenger cars and commercial vehicles) exceeded 85m units in 2022. This is the highest output since the start of the pandemic, during which global annual production fell from almost 92.2m units in 2019. China, which produced over 27m vehicles last year accounted for more than 30% of global output. Among major non-Chinese markets, vehicle output grew by 10% in the US and 11% in Germany last year, while UK production fell 6% y-o-y.
In March, the Council of Europe adopted a regulation on CO2 emissions that in effect phases out the use of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars in the EU by 2035. At present, one in five cars in the EU is at least partially electric, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), which is set to rise to three in five by 2030. But this is unevenly spread, with electric cars accounting for only 9% of vehicles in half of Europe—countries where average income is €13,000/year, compared with 30%+ in wealthier north European countries where average earnings are around €32,000/year, ACEA said in its new report. See interactive map here. The market share of electrically chargeable cars corresponds closely to income, and for many European drivers a switch from ICE to electric is simply unaffordable. Charging infrastructure is, likewise, concentrated in northern Europe.

Source: ACEA