U.S. Aerospace Industry 2004 Sales Likely to Beat Forecast
The U.S. aerospace industry results are improving, and end-of-year figures are likely to turn out $1 billion to $5 billion higher than Aerospace Industries Assn.'s forecast of $148.1 billion. John W. Douglass, president and CEO of the U.S. association, said there was uptick in the aerospace trade balance in favor of the U.S. in the first quarter. If this holds for the year as expected, the industry could boost its trade surplus by about $5 billion. This would break out of the roughly $30 billion per year surplus recorded over the past several years. Douglass also said before Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. industry expected it would one day earn 70% of its revenue from the civil sector. Now military sales have rebounded and civil sales have been depressed, so the U.S. industry has a 50/50 mix. Most other aerospace industries worldwide depend on civil sales for about 80% of their business, he said.
