Haite’s Chin on strategic growth, freighter conversions

ST Engineering last week took redelivery of the first EFW A321-200P2F conversion to be carried out at the Haite Tianjin facility.

Freighter conversions are not new to Haite Tianjin, but the company plans to increase its activity in the segment.

“This business is a very strategic decision because we need to have a mixture of work and the type of work is important to us,” General Manager Ivan Chin tells Cargo Facts in this week’s episode of the “Cargo Facts Connect” podcast, recorded at the redelivery ceremony in Tianjin.

Haite Tianjin has provided touch labor for IAI’s 737NG conversions since 2019 and has completed thirteen 737-800BDSFs and -700BDSFs to date.

The company last week also broke ground for a third hangar offering three additional narrowbody bays for conversions and other MRO work. The hangar is expected to be completed in the second half of 2025.

“[Doing conversions] actually has a lot of this repeatable work that we are looking at,” Chin said. “After the third-phase expansion, that is exactly where we are looking at expansion to cater for the growth, especially in the A320 and A321 cargo conversion market.”

Tune in to this week’s podcast to hear more on Haite as Chin speaks with Cargo Facts Editor Jeff Lee in Tianjin.