EADS, the parent of Airbus SAS, will open China's first sourcing office in Beijing later this year as it seeks to deepen its insights into the domestic market while developing a long-term procurement strategy, the company said during a Sino-European sourcing summit yesterday.

The office, which will be run by EADS China, will conduct procurement support and supplier development in China for the Airbus and Eurocopter units, said Philippe Advani, vice president of EADS Global Sourcing Network, during the China Sourcing Summit, which opened yesterday in Shanghai and runs through tomorrow.

The office will start operation as soon as it is staffed, the company said.

"We feel unable to source in China without fully understanding the market," said Advani, in explaining the timing for the new office.

EADS bought at least 60 million U.S. dollars worth of products from Chinese suppliers in 2006. Its annual procurement is expected to exceed 120 million U.S. dollars in China by 2010, Advani said.

That figure excludes Airbus's plan to allow China to design and manufacture five percent of its A350 model, he said.

Sourcing summit

About 250 global buyers and supply chain operators from China and Europe participated in the sourcing summit, which featured topics such as how to use China as a sourcing market to optimize companies' supply chain.

"Cooperating with Chinese companies is extremely important for European firms as China will become the most important sourcing market for direct supplies by 2010 given its enormous cost advantage," said Christopher Jahns, rector of the European Business School and executive director of the Supply Management Institute in Wiesbaden, Germany, a summit organizer.

"European firms expect that their Chinese partners actively contribute to the development of innovative products and quality management in the future," he said.

The European Union Ambassador to China, Serge Abou, said at the summit that China is a competitive market in terms of trade, and EU imports from China had been growing by an annual 20 percent in the last five years.

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