Boeing says delay in 787 delivery to China probable

BEIJING Oct 23 (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) said delivery of its new 787 Dreamliner in China "probably" would be delayed, but the ongoing strike made it impossible to say when passengers would be able to ride in the ultra-modern plane.

The company's latest quarterly profit fell 38 percent as a seven-week strike by its jetliner assembly workers wiped out almost a month of production at its Seattle-area plants.

Boeing has orders for almost 900 of the fuel efficient Dreamliner, 60 of which are from Chinese airlines, which were to be delivered beginning in the third quarter of next year.

"Because of the strike that is ongoing at Boeing there will probably be some delay to that," John Bruns, a vice president of China operations, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

"But we just don't know the impact yet," he said.

Industry watchers had expected another delay to the plane, which is already at least 16 months behind schedule.

($=6.83 yuan) (Reporting by Kirby Chien; editing by Ken Wills)