By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - European defense giant EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) could make an initial decision before year's end about moving additional production to the United States or other manufacturing sites, a top executive said on Monday.
"There is consideration beginning to bring other final assembly activities to the United States," Ralph Crosby, chief executive of EADS North America, told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit, citing pressure from the dollar's slump against the euro.
"We really are at a preliminary point," he said, noting that final decisions would be made by top company leaders. "If we're going to get out of the euro trap, we have to do more stuff either here or in even lower cost manufacturing sites."
He said single-aisle freighters based on the A330 airliner would be a "logical candidate" to move to Mobile, Alabama.
That is where EADS has said it will assemble and later build the A330 airplanes that will be modified into aerial refueling tankers, if EADS and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the prime contractor on the program, win a multibillion contract from the U.S. Air Force next February.
Crosby said some decisions would be made soon on the issue, possibly before the end of the year.
"We just have to see. This is one of those opportunities that comes from unforeseeable challenges from the exchange rates," he said.
Louis Gallois, chief executive of parent company EADS, said in Paris on Monday that moving production outside the euro zone was needed for survival due to the continued slide of the dollar versus the euro. Continued...
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