Pham Truong Son, head of the Hi-tech Zone Management Board on March 29 confirmed that the plant with the design capacity of 12,470 metric tons per year, has become operational after one year of construction.

The plant invested by the Universal Alloy Corporation Vietnam was built at the cost of $170 million.

The subdivisions of the plant produce parts used in aerospace, raw materials and assemble with aluminum alloy materials. Products are exported to Europe, North America and Malaysia.

The aerospace component manufacturing plant in the central city of Da Nang has been put into operation. It can provide more than 4,000 components to Boeing.

The investor plans to export $25 million worth of aircraft components in 2021 and $82 million in 2022.

In 2018, Hanwha Group from South Korea officially inaugurated the plant that makes aerospace engines. Its first products were exported in early 2019.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industry from Japan also set up a facility making aircraft doors from carbon fiber compounds for Boeing 777 passenger aircrafts in Hung Yen province.

Analysts noted that more and more foreign investors want to set up airplane component manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, commenting that this is good news for Vietnam, which could be seen as a new step for the establishment of an aircraft component manufacturing center in Vietnam.

Nguyen Thien Tong, an aviation expert, said once foreign companies expand their production in Vietnam, they will transfer technology, train workers and organize production with Vietnamese engineers.

“The aviation industry needs to be developed step by step. The opening of aircraft component manufacturing factories in Vietnam shows that Vietnamese labor force can meet the requirements to do the outsourcing and its engineers are good enough to receive technology transfer,” Tong said.

Vu Quoc Huy from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology also thinks that the presence of the aircraft component manufacturing facilities will help develop Vietnam’s aviation industry.

Airplane manufacturers need many supporting companies that provide components. French Airbus, for example, needs 3,000 component manufacturing companies. Vietnam only has several component manufacturing companies.

Meanwhile, Tran Tien Anh from the Aviation Engineering Faculty of the HCM City University of Science and Technology keeps cautious when talking about the prospect of Vietnam’s aviation industry.

Anh, on one hand, said the opening of new component manufacturing factories will allow Vietnamese workers to approach high technologies, on the other hand, said foreign owned facilities will only help generate more jobs in Vietnam and allow them to learn and practice.

Meanwhile, he believes that the added value Vietnam can expect from the facilities is not high.

“The workers at the factories are Vietnamese, but the technologies are foreign,” he explained. “Steel will also be imported from other countries, because Vietnam’s steel cannot meet the standards."

Hoang Viet

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