Embraer reported its highest order backlog since the start of the pandemic, with the market for private jets continuing to prove strong.
The Brazilian aircraft maker said its firm order backlog reached $17.8 billion in the second quarter, up 3% compared with the first quarter and a year-on-year increase of 12%.
With an increase of almost 17% compared with the first quarter of 2022, the order backlog in its executive aviation division outperformed the overall growth.
“Growth in the light and mid-sized business jet segments continues,” Embraer said in its second-quarter financial results on August 4, 2022. “Embraer Executive Aviation is well positioned to capitalize on this growth, with strong product performance and increased customer demand.”
Echoing comments from other manufacturers, chief executive Francisco Gomes Neto said Embraer was working to mitigate supply chain disruption. The disruption means Embraer was unable to deliver four aircraft as planned in the first half, but these will now be delivered in August.
“It is a major issue and we can’t underestimate this challenging environment. To minimize the impact we are working very close to our suppliers,” Gomes Neto told analysts on a call after publishing results. He said Embraer had people working inside suppliers but had no plans to make any acquisitions of suppliers to ease the problems.
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When asked about Russian suppliers, chief financial officer Antonio Carlos Garcia explained that Embraer had only one supplier in Russia for titanium. However, Embraer is partially replacing titanium from Russia with US and European sources. That means Embraer now gets under 60% of its titanium from Russia, compared with 85% some months ago.
On the defense side, Embraer highlighted the decision by the Netherlands to select the C-390 Millennium as a sole source in its project “Replacement Capacity Tactical Airlift”.
Embraer added it has four units of the C-390 Millennium in the production line destined for the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), two units to the Portuguese Air Force and one to the Hungarian Defense Forces.
Embraer said an order in its commercial aviation division for 20 E195-E2 commercial jets from Porter would be included in the backlog for the third quarter.