Boeing doesn’t expect its recovery to be impacted by trade war with China

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday that he doesn’t expect the U.S. trade war with China to deter the company from its financial recovery and aircraft delivery targets even though Chinese airlines are refusing to accept the company’s planes.

Speaking on CNBC, Ortberg said that Boeing had three airplanes in China ready for delivery, but that the country has stopped taking deliveries due to the current tariff environment. Ortberg said Boeing will be “pretty pragmatic” going forward. “For those airplanes that haven’t been built yet, we’ll be looking to maybe redirect those to other customers,” he said.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday that he doesn’t expect the U.S. trade war with China to forestall the Arlington County-based company’s financial recovery, nor prevent it from reaching aircraft delivery targets with Chinese airlines now refusing to accept Boeing planes.

Speaking on CNBC, Ortberg said that Boeing had three airplanes in China ready for delivery, but that two of them had been returned to Seattle so far because Beijing has stopped taking deliveries due to the dispute with the U.S.

While the company had planned to send about 50 airplanes to China this year, Ortberg said Boeing will be “pretty pragmatic” going forward.

“For those airplanes that haven’t been built yet, we’ll be looking to maybe redirect those to other customers,” he said. “For the airplanes that have been built, we call it remarketing. There’s plenty of customers out there looking for the Max aircraft.”

President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2 that triggered panic in the financial markets and generated recession fears, causing the U.S. president to quickly put a partial 90-day hold on the import taxes and increase his already steep tariffs against China to as much as 145%.

On Tuesday U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a speech that the ongoing tariffs showdown against China is unsustainable and he expects a “de-escalation” in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

Boeing reported its first-quarter financial results on Wednesday, posting an adjusted loss of 49 cents per share on revenue of $19.5 billion. The results topped the expectations of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research, which called for a loss of $1.54 per share on revenue of $19.29 billion.

The company also significantly reduced its cash burn to approximately $2.29 billion from nearly $4 billion in the prior-year period.

Shares of Boeing rose more than 6% in morning trading.

Northrop Grumman pretax loss

In other Virginia-based aerospace news, Falls Church-headquartered Northrop Grumman on Tuesday reported first-quarter net income of $481 million, which did not meet Wall Street expectations. CEO Kathy Warden said in Tuesday’s earnings call that the defense giant had incurred a $477 million pretax loss on the first five aircraft for its U.S. Air Force B-21 Raider stealth bomber program.

Higher materials costs, as well as changes in the production process to speed it up, were related to the loss, Warden said.

Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were $6.06 a share, down from the average estimate of nine analysts of $6.21 per share.

The defense contractor posted revenue of $9.47 billion in the period, which also did not meet Wall Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected $9.91 billion.

Northrop Grumman expects full-year earnings in the range of $24.95 to $25.35 per share, with revenue in the range of $42 billion to $42.5 billion.

On Wednesday, Reston-based General Dynamics reported first-quarter net income of $994 million, a profit of $3.66 per share, which beat Wall Street forecasts of $3.47 a share. General Dynamics posted revenue of $12.22 billion in the first quarter, over a Wall Street expectation of $11.95.

Arlington-based RTX on Tuesday reported earnings of $1.54 billion in the first quarter of the year, with adjusted earnings at $1.47 per share. That beat Wall Street expectations of $1.35 a share. The aerospace and defense company posted revenue of $20.31 billion in the quarter, up from a forecast by analysts of $19.71 billion.

Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this story.