P.M. BRIEFING : Kawasaki to Make Airbus Parts

Kawasaki Heavy Industries said today it plans to make fuselage parts for Europe’s Airbus Industrie in a surprise departure from the Japanese aircraft industry’s long-term dealings with America’s Boeing Co.

Kawasaki expects to sign a contract by mid-October with British Aerospace, one of the main partners in the European Airbus venture, to make parts for the A321 plane, a Kawasaki spokeswoman said.

This would be the first time a Japanese aircraft maker has worked with Europe’s Airbus.

The move is unusual in Japan, where the aircraft industry has always been loyal to Boeing.

“It’s incredible,” a spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan’s largest aircraft maker, said of Kawasaki’s planned participation in the Airbus project. “It’s against tradition here. In fuselage production, we do not work for rival firms.”