Brazil’s Embraer reports $315 mln in losses

Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer reported second quarter losses of $315 million Wednesday, as sales plunged due to the coronavirus pandemic and a proposed joint venture with Boeing collapsed.

The new red ink came on top of $292 million in losses in the first quarter when the COVID-19 crisis began to hit the South American economic powerhouse.

In the second three-month stretch of last year, by comparison, Embraer posted profits of $7.2 million.

This time the company‘s hardest hit branch was commercial aviation, which fell 82.8 percent compared with the same period of last year—it delivered only four commercial airliners compared to 26 back then.

The company said that due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic it will not be releasing estimates of future finances or plane deliveries.

It also said was “affected negatively” by the collapse of a deal under which Boeing was to have acquired 80 percent of Embraer’s commercial division for $4.2 billion.

Boeing said Embraer had not lived up to terms of the deal but the Brazilian company denied this and said Boeing had acted improperly.

With that deal Boeing had hoped to compete with Airbus and joint venture partner Bombardier of Canada in the market for medium-haul airliners.

© 2020 AFP