Boeing strike impact to be felt globally

By Bill Rigby and Tim Hepher

NEW YORK/PARIS (Reuters) - Aerospace groups braced for global disruption from a potentially lengthy strike at Boeing (BA.N) on Monday as one of the planemaker's biggest suppliers lost no time in cutting production and working hours.

Three days after 27,000 machinists halted assembly at the world's top-selling planemaker, Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems (SPR.N) suspended its 2008 financial guidance and said it was cutting volumes on certain Boeing products.

The former Boeing unit, based in Wichita, Kansas and one of the world's largest suppliers of airframe structures, said it had managed its way through a similar strike in 2005 by using a shorter working week instead of stopping production.

It said it would implement a revised production and delivery schedule with a reduced working week for employees.

Economists have warned the strike which began on Saturday could hit businesses around the Seattle area, where Boeing's commercial assembly plants are located, and dent the U.S. economy in particular by expanding its trade deficit.

Early in New York, Boeing (BA.N) stock edged up 0.2 percent to $63.0 but was left on the sidelines of a global market rally triggered by a massive mortgage bailout in the United States.

Shares in EADS (EAD.PA), parent of Boeing's European planemaker rival Airbus, rose more than 5 percent in Paris.

The fourth strike in 20 years by Boeing's biggest union threatens to cost the company $100 million (57 million pounds) a day in revenue and is likely to cause problems for a long list of suppliers across the world in an increasingly global aerospace business.