Embraer delivered a record 204 airplanes last year, including 162 jets in the regional/commercial sector, leaving the company on what it hopes proves firm enough financial footing to readily absorb the economic “challenges” that lie ahead for this year. However, a relatively weak fourth-quarter order intake resulted in the company’s first quarterly decline in backlog value in more than two-and-a-half years–to $20.9 billion from $21.6 billion at the end of last year’s third quarter.
That the company–along with the airliner manufacturing business as a whole–will see a further contraction in backlog hardly appears open to question, as airlines around the world respond to market conditions the World Bank expects to result in a global recession this year. Even China–a market projected by Embraer in its first Chinese Market Outlook to lead the world in airliner capacity growth over the next 20 years–has dampened expectations as it calls on its airlines to cancel or postpone aircraft deliveries this year.
