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A year ago, Embraer’s eyes were on China. The increasing closeness of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with China’s paramount leader Xi Jinping had linked Brazil’s geopolitical machinations with the ambitions of its industrial crown jewel. The Civil Aviation Administration of China’s validated certification of Embraer’s E190-E2 in 2022 and E195-E2 in 2023 cleared the path for these models to fly with Chinese airlines and raised the prospect of local production. It was a “natural” shift in posture for the company, Embraer’s CEO, Franscisco Gomes Neto told The Air Current at the time.
But a year later, Embraer’s commercial relationship with Chinese airlines and industry — which still holds the promise of a significant order and possible local production of E2s — has not progressed much further. “We are working to create an environment for us to penetrate that market,” said Neto in a recent interview. Embraer is in Zhuhai this week at Airshow China hosting a supplier day “with the aim of deepening collaboration with China’s aviation industry.”
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Yet, Embraer’s chief executive was quick to tell TAC that the glacial progress on China has given way to a growing focus on the Middle East. “Another front, yes, that has progressed better than China is Saudi Arabia,” said Neto unbidden, remarking that the Brazilian plane maker is currently in talks for a “broad collaboration in Saudi.” Embraer is expected to provide a comprehensive update on its business during an investor day on Nov. 18 in New York City.
Just last week the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA’s) $930 billion pool of sovereign wealth, known as the Public Investment Fund (PIF), held its Future Investment Initiative (FII), a global summit to highlight its growing influence across industries. In a post-pandemic world of still-high interest rates, the Kingdom has become a not-so-quiet force in aerospace capital and a fresh new market for Embraer’s commercial and defense products.
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“Countries that can mobilize capital and bridge gaps between east and west, north and south, are essential,” Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF’s governor and chair of Saudi Aramco, said two weeks ago at the FII summit. “Saudi Arabia stands as a superconnector, with its unique resources and strategic geographic location.” And there is a growing impression, say multiple industry officials familiar with Embraer’s thinking, that the PIF and Saudi Arabia may hold the key to funding the new commercial airplane program currently under evaluation by Embraer.
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