Boeing shares fall as Wall Street counts cost of halting 737 MAX production
Shares of Boeing Co and its global suppliers fell further on Tuesday as analysts began to tally the cost of the US planemaker’s decision to suspend production of 737 MAX jets in January, its biggest assembly-line halt in more than two decades.
Analysts estimated Boeing could continue to burn around $1 billion a month despite the halt in work on what was previously its best-selling plane, and investors worried layoffs, lost work and logistical costs would ripple through its supply chain.
The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people within five months, costing the manufacturer more than $9 billion so far.
“Each supplier will likely be missing about 200 deliveries versus original plans, with about 80% of the shortfall coming in 2020 and the remainder in 2021,” Melius Research analyst Carter Copeland wrote in a note.
