Abu Dhabi: Strata Manufacturing, the aircraft parts maker owned by Mubadala Development Company, said it expects it will this year see Dh500 million or above in sales, in line with sales figures from 2017, which reached half a billion dirhams.
Esmail Abdullah, chief executive officer of Strata, said the company recorded Dh106 million in sales in the first quarter of 2018, and expects to build on that momentum during the rest of the year.
“We want to maintain sales at half a billion. There are some challenges in the market with aircraft deliveries and orders worldwide, but we want to weather that storm and ensure that we are above the half a billion target,” he told Gulf News on Monday on the sidelines of the Global Aerospace Summit.
“The growth in the market, in terms of aircraft deliveries, is not what has been expected. We expected a higher aircraft order, but the orders are yet to come.”
Abdullah said the slowdown from airlines is probably a short-term issue, but that in the long term, the global market will require about 35,000 new aircraft over the next 30 years.
And to counter that challenge, the CEO said diversifying the company’s customer base was crucial. Strata on Monday announced it has signed a deal to manufacture belly fairings for the PC-24, a business jet produced by Pilatus Aircraft. The company already produces parts for Boeing, Airbus and Leonardo.
Strata also announced on Monday it was awarded a contract by Boeing to manufacture composite ribs for Boeing’s new 777X aircraft. Abdullah said Strata will manufacture the parts and deliver them next year.
He added that Strata is in talks with a number of new potential customers, mainly in Europe and North America, but did not disclose more details as deals have not yet been finalised.
As part of that diversification strategy, Strata is also planning to start manufacturing engine components, and is currently in discussions with manufacturers to enter into that market. The CEO said he expects Strata to enter that market by 2022.
“We want to manufacture aero-structures, we want to manufacture engine components, we want to manufacture material, and we’re looking at other areas of manufacturing but we need to ensure we have sustainable growth first,” Abdullah said, adding that the company was not ruling any options out.
Asked about Strata’s financial performance, Abdullah declined to provide details, only saying that shareholders were “satisfied,” without saying whether the company was turning a profit yet.
In 2017, Strata shipped over 9,500 aircraft parts worldwide, with 8 per cent of the aircraft fleet globally now carrying Strata parts.
