The healthy crop of new airliner orders announced by Boeing during July’s Farnborough International Air Show made a big impact on U.S. trade figures. New Department of Commerce data on manufactured durable goods revealed that orders announced at the biennial show for at least 228 new Boeing aircraft saw total orders in this sector rise by 22.6 percent in July to total $300.1 billion. Economists had predicted a rise of around 8 percent, suggesting that they had not anticipated the full extent of the Farnborough show boost.
U.S. engine makers, most notably GE Aviation, also achieved strong sales at the Farnborough show.
Removing aircraft orders from the July statistics, durable goods orders in the U.S. would have increased only by 0.8 percent.
The numbers released in the department's U.S. Census Bureau News on August 26 showed that orders for “non-defense aircraft and parts” placed during July were worth $70.3 billion (compared with $16.8 billion in June and $15.1 billion in May).