Seoul: Boeing’s Chinese customers refusing the delivery of new aircraft built to them due to customs, the US Planemaker has confirmed when a third Boeing jet began to return to the United States on Thursday.

“Due to the tariffs, many of our customers in China have indicated that they will not take delivery,” said CEO Kelly Ortberg during the first quarter of Wednesday.

Ortberg said China was the only country where Boeing was facing this issue and the Planemaker would redirect new jet supply to other customers who were eager for previous deliveries due to a global shortage of new commercial aircraft.

Before President Donald Trump’s global trade offensive, commercial jets were traded with duty -free worldwide under a 1979 civil aviation agreement.

A Chinese airline taking the delivery of a Boeing jet could now be severely affected by the retaliatory guares imposed by Beijing on the import of US goods. A new 737 Max has a market value of about $ 55 million, according to IBA, an aviation consultant.

Two 737 MAX 8S, which had been ferryed to China in March for delivery to Xiamen Airlines, returned to Boeing’s production hub in Seattle in the last week.

A third 737 max 8 left Boeing’s Zhoushan Completion Center near Shanghai to US territory Guam on Thursday, showed data from Flight Trackers Airnav Radar and Flight Tradar24.

The aircraft was originally built for the National Carrier Air China, according to Aviation Flights Group Tracking Database. Air China did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It had been ferry from Seattle on April 5, in the period between Trump, who first announced tariffs on China and Beijing, who began to enforce his own ramped duties on US goods.

Guam is one of the stops that such flights make on the 5,000 km (8,000 km) travel across the Pacific between Seattle and Zhoushan, where aircraft are ferryed by Boeing for final work and delivery to a Chinese carrier.

The Chinese government has not commented on why the planes were returned.

Order book

CFO Brian West said China represents about 10% of Boeing’s backlog with commercial aircraft.

Boeing had planned to deliver about 50 new aircraft to China for the rest of the year, West said, assessing opportunities to market the 41 already built or I-process aircraft.

“For the nine aircraft that are not yet in the production system, we engage with our customers to understand their intentions of taking delivery, and if necessary we have the ability to allocate these positions to other customers,” Ortberg said.

“We will not continue to build flights to customers who will not take them,” said Ortberg.

Tracking data from Aviation Flights Group shows 36 built aircraft to Chinese customers in various stages of production and testing are now in the US, including the three returned aircraft.

Boeing data shows 130 completed orders for China-based airlines and landlords, including 96 of its best-selling 737 MAX model. Industrial sources say that a significant part of the more than 760 completed orders that Boeing has not yet named a buyer to China.

The tariff war comes as Boeing has recovered from an almost five-year import freezing of 737 Max Jets to China and a previous round of merchant stresses.

West said the question is a short -term challenge and that either China is starting to take aircraft again or Boeing is preparing Jets for re -marketing.

“Customers call and ask for additional aircraft,” he said.

Washington signaled the openness to step down the trade war this week and said high tariffs between the United States and China are not sustainable.

However, analysts say that confusion over changing customs can leave many flight deliveries in Limbo, with some carriers that suggest that they would postpone the delivery of aircraft instead of paying tasks.