US plane maker Boeing is to sign a big deal with the Chinese government Tuesday at a ceremony to be attended by US Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, US officials said in Washington.

No further information was given, other than that the agreement will be signed by the Chinese deputy minister in charge of national development, Zhang Guobao, and the head of Boeing's commercial planes unit, Alan Mulally.

If the deal is of significance, it would be a welcome break to Boeing, which last month announced it was cutting up to 30,000 staff from its commercial planes division as a result of the blow the airline industry took from the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Market watchers noted that Boeing said in September before the attacks that it hoped to win an order from Beijing for 30 mid-range, twin-engined 737s.

Such an order would be worth an estimated US$2 billion.

Chinese government sources in Beijing suggested that the deal for the 737s was agreed and could have been announced by US President George W. Bush during a planned visit to China in October.

Bush cancelled that trip after the September 11 attacks.

Boeing was not available for comment.

The company has seen 38 plane orders scrapped from its order book for 2001, bringing the total down to around 500. For 2002, it expected to deliver around 400 aircraft instead of the 510-520 initially forecast.

Boeing's head of marketing, Randy Baseler, said in Beijing two weeks ago that China, and its Hong Kong territory, would need around 1,764 new planes over the next two decades to meet demand.

(China Daily 10/02/2001)