Eurocopter, the world's top helicopter maker, hopes its early entry into China will help it keep half the country's civilian market in the coming years despite intensifying competition from rivals Bell and Sikorsky, its China chief said on May 17. Eurocopter, which accounts for up to a fifth of parent EADS's business, is the sole foreign helicopter manufacturer assembling its craft in China, chief representative Henri Stell told Reuters in an interview. But rivals are closing in. Eurocopter now commands 90 percent of a Chinese civilian turbine-engine helicopter market that official forecasts say will need at least 1,000 craft by 2010, rising to some 2,000 by 2013 and 10,000 by 2020.
But Textron Inc's Bell and Sikorsky - a unit of United Technologies Corp - are fighting intensely for contracts, Stell conceded.
Eurocopter, a wholly controlled unit of European Aeronautic, Defense and Space Co (EADS), now has some 9,300 of its civilian helicopters flying around the world.
Eurocopter began in the 1980s having its AS365 Dauphin helicopters - known as the Z9 in China - produced in China under licence, targeting the local civilian market.
It then inked an agreement in late 2003, allowing long-time partner Hafei Aviation Industry Co Ltd to make five-seater EC120s for domestic sale.
The EC120 was jointly developed by Eurocopter, Hafei and Singapore Technology Airspace Industry Corp in the early 1990s. Production had been limited to France previously. Stell did not rule out having more of its models manufactured locally "if it's proven to be economically viable".
China has some 100 civilian helicopters in service, including non-turbine models. But its helicopter market has yet to take off and shipments have moved slowly over past decades in a country where cars have become common only in recent years.
Since Eurocopter's first sale in China some 40 years ago, it has managed only to sell some 50 civilian helicopters in the country - less than 1 percent of the global figure. But Stell remained optimistic about prospects in the world's seventh-largest economy, betting on China becoming the "potentially biggest market".
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