The plane parts maker Strata has signed a US$16.5 million deal with a Dubai company for superjumbo A380 parts.
The Mubadala-owned company has signed a 10-year agreement with Premier Composite Technologies (PCT).
Strata will outsource to PCT the treatment of composite materials for the production of flap track fairings, or parts that control the working of the flaps on the aircraft’s wings.
There are three such fairings for two flaps on each wing.
The outsourcing would allow Al Ain-based Strata to save time and costs besides freeing up 400 square metres of factory floor space required for production of the material.
“At Strata, we constantly work towards building a local supply chain which will enable us to reduce risks and outsource some of the company’s non-core operations, allowing us to focus more on value added operations,” said Badr Salim Al Olama, the chief executive of Strata Manufacturing, in a statement yesterday.
The five-year-old company expects to break even by the middle of next year. This year, Strata aims to report revenues above Dh300 million, up from Dh220m last year.
In November at the Dubai Airshow, it bagged deals with Airbus and Boeing totalling US$5 billion.
This year, Strata has procured 30 per cent of its supplies from local companies.
Dubai's eight-year-old PCT plans to also bid for A330 parts manufacturing, and in the future also bid for work on Boeing programmes. Airbus is in the process of adding PCT to its approved suppliers list, according to the statement.
Strata supplies parts to Airbus A330, A340 and A380 aircraft. It will also supply the Belgian parts maker Sabca for the long-range, wide-body jet A350 XWB, which was launched at Farnborough Airshow last week. Other clients include Boeing for its 777 and 787 jets, and the Italian aerospace company Alenia Aermacchi for its ATR aircraft.
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