Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Larry Cup, of course,
Speaker 1: is the CEO of GE Aerospace. It's always fantastic to
Speaker 1: catch up with him. Let's kick the conversation off. Larry,
Speaker 1: good morning, nice to see thanks for making the time.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the conversation that is happening in the
Speaker 1: halls here in New Delhi, and that is about where
Speaker 1: the tariffs mean price rises. Is that conversation already beginning.
Speaker 2: Well, we've been talking to customers throughout the weekend here
Speaker 2: at IATA about the US trade policies and really what
Speaker 2: we've tried to do, guys just remind everybody that what
Speaker 2: we've been advocating.
Speaker 3: For is a return to where we were on.
Speaker 2: The heels of nineteen seventy nine Civil Aviation Agreement, which
Speaker 2: really provided terror free trade. Yeah, amongst all the signataries,
Speaker 2: that was a positive for the US heerospace industry. I
Speaker 2: think that is why the US enjoys a seventy five
Speaker 2: billion dollar annual trade surplus today. But we'll see how
Speaker 2: that plays out. There's a series of biladeral negotiations that
Speaker 2: are acting.
Speaker 3: Of what we've.
Speaker 2: Shared with customers and with our investors is we think
Speaker 2: we've got about a five hundred million dollar residual cost
Speaker 2: challenge as a result of those tariffs.
Speaker 3: There are a whole host of things we've done with
Speaker 3: our supply chain.
Speaker 2: We're exercising the duty drawback options and the like, but
Speaker 2: we will be taking cost actions and passing along some
Speaker 2: of that residual.
Speaker 3: You're already saying.
Speaker 1: It on you. It's already starting to IMPACTE you a.
Speaker 3: Business very much, so very much.
Speaker 2: So that's why we're managing it as best we can,
Speaker 2: mitigating it where we can through those supply chain improvements,
Speaker 2: but also through the costs and price actions.
Speaker 3: I referenced a moment ago.
Speaker 1: And customers are saying what they're saying, you need to
Speaker 1: do it, or you need to take that cost, or
Speaker 1: we can take some of it, or come on, how
Speaker 1: does that conversation go? Well?
Speaker 3: I hate the conversation really starts back with advocacy.
Speaker 2: I think we've worked very well with our airline customers,
Speaker 2: with our airframe or partners, making sure that the industry
Speaker 2: you're really speaking with one voice at this point in time,
Speaker 2: because so many people, I think, believe that the prior regime.
Speaker 3: Really benefited the industry.
Speaker 2: In turn, we're helping make sure that everyone understands what
Speaker 2: we're doing, both operationally to mitigate but also again the
Speaker 2: cost actions that we're taking. You have to make sure
Speaker 2: that we're buffering that as best we can.
Speaker 1: Your hope would be that you would go back to
Speaker 1: that original agreement. I eat no tariffs on the kind
Speaker 1: of products that you make, But at the moment, it
Speaker 1: looks like ten percent is the minimum the Trump administration
Speaker 1: is talking about. Is that now the base case?
Speaker 2: Well, we're continuing to advocate a full throated way, guy
Speaker 2: for something akin to where we were with the seventy
Speaker 2: nine agreement. Through these bilaterals, right, the US struck at
Speaker 2: a bilateral, the UK others are at active. I think
Speaker 2: June will be an important month in this regard, but
Speaker 2: that's really where we are.
Speaker 1: In terms of kind of where that takes the industry. Next.
Speaker 1: Are we going to get a situation where we end
Speaker 1: up with uneven playing fields in terms of how you
Speaker 1: deal with different customers in different parts of the globe.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's probably too early to tell.
Speaker 2: Guy. Again, I think we want to make sure we're
Speaker 2: advocating as forcefully as we can taking the mitigation actions
Speaker 2: be they operational, be they cost oriented to the full
Speaker 2: extent possible, and then we'll see how things play out.
Speaker 1: You're watching for, as you say, a fluid environment, but
Speaker 1: the European Union has obviously got to be a big
Speaker 1: kind of pass of this very much.
Speaker 2: So again, I think what we're looking for is to
Speaker 2: see how the negotiations play out. The July eighth date,
Speaker 2: I think looms so here we are in the final
Speaker 2: month in the run up to that. I know the
Speaker 2: US government is actively engaged with multiple trading partners. Let's
Speaker 2: see how those negotiations play out.
Speaker 1: In terms of other factors that kind of work around this.
Speaker 1: One of the other things that we're seeing as a
Speaker 1: sort of derivative of what is happening in Washington right now,
Speaker 1: is it appreciating dollar. How does that affect your business?
Speaker 1: Are you already started to see the effect of it?
Speaker 1: Is there a translation effect that we should be looking
Speaker 1: out for.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's really a material issue for US
Speaker 2: guy in Marge part because we transact both with our
Speaker 2: customers and our suppliers by and larger dollars, so we
Speaker 2: watch it. But it will be a material issue for
Speaker 2: g Aerospace.
Speaker 1: Working forward from here, we're now thinking about how Boeing
Speaker 1: and Airbus are ramping their expectations. So you've got Kelly
Speaker 1: Olberg looking maybe to go to sixty on his narrow
Speaker 1: body line. He just added another line that obviously means
Speaker 1: more engines. We've obviously got Airbus ramping up. They're looking
Speaker 1: to get to seventy five. How big a challenge is
Speaker 1: that for you right now? Given everything else that is
Speaker 1: going on right now, We've got issues in the engine
Speaker 1: esp in the engine space right now, Like, how challenging
Speaker 1: are those kinds of levels going to be?
Speaker 2: What a wonderful challenge to have, right because be it
Speaker 2: with Airbus, be it with Boeing, they are effectively sold
Speaker 2: out through the rest of this decade. We're fortunate to
Speaker 2: have the leadership position we have both in narrow bodies
Speaker 2: right and in wide bodies.
Speaker 3: So we know we're going to.
Speaker 2: Have to do more in the back half of this
Speaker 2: year than we will do in the first half. We'll
Speaker 2: have to do more in twenty six than we did
Speaker 2: it in twenty five. But that's really for us, the
Speaker 2: benefit of this one hundred and seventy billion dollars backlog
Speaker 2: that we enjoy so operationally.
Speaker 3: There's a lot that we're doing guy to make sure we're.
Speaker 2: Going in as deeply as we can into our supply chain,
Speaker 2: helping our suppliers identify bottlenecks, resolve those as quickly as
Speaker 2: we can, and build the skills and build the cake
Speaker 2: capacity for what's going to be required.
Speaker 1: As we those two factor is interacting the tariffs and
Speaker 1: what's happening in the supply chain. How much more complexity
Speaker 1: is being added not taken away right now?
Speaker 3: Well, it is what it is, right.
Speaker 2: I think we've long embraced the idea that we have
Speaker 2: to recognize and embrace the reality that we have, and
Speaker 2: that's the world that we're operating within. I'm encouraged just
Speaker 2: looking at what we did in April and May, for example,
Speaker 2: we saw a double digit increase and the receipts that
Speaker 2: we get from our key pacing suppliers compared to where
Speaker 2: they were in the first quarter. So the actions that
Speaker 2: are within our control I think are bearing fruit. We
Speaker 2: need to sustain that and build on that over time,
Speaker 2: and that's how we'll keep pace with Airbus, with Boeing,
Speaker 2: with the airlines and everyone else that rely on on
Speaker 2: g Aerospace.
Speaker 1: A couple of quick questions. First one is there is
Speaker 1: a lot of concern obviously in Washington, d C. At
Speaker 1: the moment, your hometown, from around the issue of the deficit.
Speaker 1: G is a US government customer, is a US government
Speaker 1: contractor the US government is the customer. How carefully do
Speaker 1: you watch what is happening in terms of the ability
Speaker 1: of the US government to continue to spend at the
Speaker 1: kind of levels that it is. As the CEO of
Speaker 1: G Aerospace.
Speaker 3: Well, we watch it with interest. As you would imagine.
Speaker 2: Most of what we do for the US government is
Speaker 2: through the Department of Defense, and we're pleased to be
Speaker 2: the supplier on two thirds of the US combat jet
Speaker 2: and rotary craft force. There's a lot that's coming as
Speaker 2: if the President looks to expand the defense budget, we
Speaker 2: think that is relevant step for what we do from
Speaker 2: an R and D perspective, from what we do from
Speaker 2: a next gen sixth generation combat perspective. So we're very
Speaker 2: focused on those products to those customers, mindful of the
Speaker 2: of the macro intact you.
Speaker 1: Talk about the customers. There is a concern clearly beginning
Speaker 1: to sort of grow in Washington about technology transfer when
Speaker 1: it comes to jet engines. Do you expect therefore to
Speaker 1: see greater and greater restrictions into the Chinese market as
Speaker 1: a result of that.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll see how the trade policies play out. I
Speaker 2: think that that has always been from.
Speaker 1: Trade or is it also national security as well?
Speaker 2: I think I think there is an intersection there, But
Speaker 2: that has been the case for some time with respect
Speaker 2: to what we do. There's a rather rigorous process that
Speaker 2: we've gone through for years with the US government with
Speaker 2: respect to what we're able to export. I think that
Speaker 2: that continues. It might get dialed up, is your question suggests.
Speaker 2: But that doesn't bother us. We welcome the scrutiny. We're
Speaker 2: going to continue to invest in leading edge products.
Speaker 1: Talking of leading edge products, we have one behind us.
Speaker 1: Were going back to a work so basically, just to
Speaker 1: explain we are up until now, jet edge of have
Speaker 1: had a sort of casing around them, but we're moving
Speaker 1: away from that. Now we're going to go to super
Speaker 1: high bypass engines. We're going back to propel us. Basically,
Speaker 1: is that what the next generation of aircraft is going
Speaker 1: to look like? Is it going to have these kinds
Speaker 1: of engines behind you attached to them?
Speaker 2: Well, guy, that we're going to go forward with this
Speaker 2: sort of architecture, and you describe well the open fan effort,
Speaker 2: which is a key part of our Rise technology development program.
Speaker 3: This is really.
Speaker 2: Technology, not a product thus far, but we think this
Speaker 2: is the architecture is you just described that really will
Speaker 2: really rely on the propulsive efficiency more so than the
Speaker 2: thermal efficiency of the engine to bring that next step
Speaker 2: function improvement in fuel efficiency in the latter part of
Speaker 2: the twenty thirties. So we're excited about this. It's been
Speaker 2: a fuffal point in.
Speaker 3: All of our customer conversations here at Ayada.
Speaker 1: Great to see Larry, Thanks very much indeed for making
Speaker 1: some time for us here on Blomberg. Fantastic to see you,
Speaker 1: Larry Culp, the CEO of ge Aerospace, Thank you very much, indeed,