A Chinese government spokeswoman clarified a previously announced decision about aircraft procurement, suggesting that the decision's impact on the aerospace industry could be far less severe than it appeared.

"We will not approve any new deliveries of planes for next year," said the spokeswoman, at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in Beijing.

But she said that new airplane orders would continue to be signed in 2005 for delivery in 2006 and thereafter. She also said any purchase talks currently under way wouldn't be affected.

The Wednesday statements by the representative, who declined to give her name, follow comments posted Tuesday on the Web site of a CAAC-run newspaper quoting CAAC Director-General Yang Yuanyuan as saying that his bureau "in principle will not approve additional transportation aircraft."

The original statement didn't specify whether he meant new purchases or deliveries. He said the decision was part of broader efforts to rein in an overheating sector of the economy.

Because aircraft manufacturers typically take more than a year to deliver new aircraft after taking orders for them, the statement that China wouldn��t accept additional plane deliveries next year would affect only small numbers of aircraft acquired through short-term leasing agreements, the spokeswoman said.

Airbus, for example, sells aircraft but doesn't lease them. So orders in the pipeline for new Airbus jets would appear to be unaffected under the agency's policy. Senior officials in Asia for Airbus and Boeing Co., which are locked in a fierce struggle for sales to China's fast-growing airlines, were away on vacation and couldn't be reached for comment on the agency's clarification.

"The impact is minimal for Airbus and Boeing," said analyst Michael Chan of investment bank BOC International in Hong Kong.

Given that only two days are left in 2004, any Chinese airline that ordered a new airplane today would almost certainly not receive it before 2006 anyway.

Airbus anticipates that China will become the world's second-largest aviation market, after the United States, over the next two decades. Boeing predicts that China's demand for new aircraft will total nearly 2,300 from 2004 to 2023. Both firms are in talks with Chinese authorities about large sales of their newest aircraft, the Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner and the Airbus A380.

Source: Shenzhen Daily