Boeing Spreads ‘Business Risk’ with Charleston Expansion
Although union contracts guarantee that Boeing 737  airframe assembly will stay in Renton, Washington, plans call for design and assembly of the engine nacelle to move from Goodrich to a new Boeing center in Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo: Boeing)
Although union contracts guarantee that Boeing 737 airframe assembly will stay in Renton, Washington, plans call for design and assembly of the engine nacelle to move from Goodrich to a new Boeing center in Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo: Boeing)

Boeing sent yet another signal last week that its use of cheaper labor markets in the southeastern U.S. would only accelerate when it announced plans to open a new propulsion engineering center in Charleston, South Carolina, to support the 737 Max. The move comes as part of a wider plan encompassing the establishment of new centers for engineering design and out-of-production airplane support for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Washington State and Southern California. According to Boeing, the centers will operate “independently but cooperatively” and with the existing Commercial Airplanes engineering design center in Moscow, Russia.