Boeing delivery of 737 shipments rebounds

Boeing delivered 48 of its 737 narrow-body jetliners in August, rebounding from a six-year low as the planemaker tackled production snags on its largest source of profit.

Total commercial-aircraft shipments were 64 last month, up from 39 in July, Boeing said Tuesday. While the 737 deliveries were four shy of the monthly production rate, they were an improvement from the 29 planes shipped a month earlier as parts shortages and out-of-sequence work ballooned at a Seattle-area factory. The July figure was the lowest for any month since 2012.

The company blamed late deliveries of fuselages from Spirit AeroSystems Holdings and engines from a General Electric-Safran joint venture for the 50-odd aircraft parked in nooks and crannies around the Renton factory and an adjacent air field. Boeing executives told analysts last week that it had brought in 600 mechanics from around the Puget Sound region to help tackle the logjam.

Boeing climbed 0.99 percent to close at $345.24 in New York. The shares advanced 16 percent this year through Monday, compared with 2.4 percent advance for a Standard & Poor’s index of industrial stocks.

Airbus, which has also been grappling with supplier issues, reported last week that it delivered 54 jetliners, down from 77 a month earlier, amid the European company’s usual summer shutdown.

The drop was accentuated by a rush of Airbus deliveries in July as Pratt & Whitney works to recover its A320neo engine shipments. The engine maker was forced to halt new handovers for three months at the start of the year due to an engine glitch that led to scores of planes being parked without turbines outside Airbus factories. Total deliveries last month, including of the recently acquired A220, were up from 43 a year earlier.

Boeing delivered only eight of its 787 Dreamliners last month, the same pace as July. The manufacturer’s marquee carbon-fiber jet has been hampered by shortages of seats and other cabin equipment along with production shortfalls for its Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc engines.

The Chicago-based planemaker also netted 90 new 737 family orders during August, bringing its total to the year to 424 of the single-aisle jets.