Airbus Goes to Sea: How a French Shipowner and Chinese Shipyard Are Reinventing the Atlantic Supply Chain

Last weekend’s launch of a ro-ro cargo vessel at a riverside shipyard in Wuhan may not have commanded the same attention as an Airbus A320 rolling off the production line in Toulouse or Mobile, but the two events are more closely connected than they might appear. 

The vessel that entered the water at the Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group facility on the Yangtze that Friday morning, named Spirit of Mobile, is one of three purpose-built ships that will carry the wings, fuselage sections, engine pylons, and tail assemblies of single-aisle Airbus jets across the Atlantic, and in doing so test whether a