Global Fastener News

PCC’s Donegan Comments on Boeing Strike

Jason Sandefur

As the machinists’ strike at Boeing continues, speculation is mounting on how the halt in production for the 787 Dreamliner and other Boeing aircraft will affect aerospace fastener suppliers.

Precision Castparts CEO Mark Donegan noted that aerospace demand is in fine shape. But the strike continues to affect other “near-term” industry players, including Barnes Group,” according to BB&T Capital Markets Manufacturing Weekly Review.

“The Boeing strike – to date, we haven’t seen any immediate impact, but the longer it would carry on, we’ll have to see what it will be,” Donegan stated. “The demand, again, is still there, but we’ll have to respond accordingly to what the ramp-up rates and the length and duration of it are.”

Donegan reiterated that PCC’s product line remains strong. “We get some tremendous accelerators from that standpoint. I feel very good about what’s out there at least at this point in time.”

But he expressed subtle concern for the state of Boeing’s Dreamliner program.

“I just need to get kind of the 787 up and moving and kind of moving along.”

Boeing is reportedly hearing some talk of a strike among its engineers, who are unhappy with the volume of outsourced work.

The current machinists’ strike at Boeing may not be as beneficial to the aerospace fastener industry as media reports suggest.

“I think this strike will be a hardship to some manufacturers,” Patrick Meade of the Industrial Fastener Institute’s aerospace fastener division told FastenerNews.com in mid-September.

“There will likely be a reduction in shipments for a while,” Meade emphasized.

Boeing’s 27,000 machinists voted to strike over job security, medical coverage, wages and pension benefits. Experts estimate the strike could cost Boeing as much as $120 million per day.

For more on the fastener impact, seeing the upcoming issue of FIN. �2008 FastenerNews.com