The developing trade war between the US and Europe over steel and aluminium tariffs is raising concerns in the aircraft leasing industry that tit-for-tat levies could spread to the booming aviation finance industry.
Peter Barrett, chief executive of the fourth biggest leasing company, SMBC was entering new territory after the EU this week confirmed it planned to target €2.8bn of US products in retaliation for the US decision to introduce levies on European steel and aluminium imports.
SMBC continued to use the current boom in aircraft demand to prepare for these more competitive conditions. In the last two years the percentage of new generation aircraft in the SMBC fleet had risen from 2% to 22%, with a weight average age of its aircraft at 4.5 years.