As was true of much of the industry, Israel Aerospace Industries saw a fairly steep dip in sales during 2009, largely due to a marked softening in demand on the civil side of its business. Published financial results for the first three quarters of 2009 showed sales slipping by about 25 percent on 2008 and there were few signs that the fourth quarter numbers will have reversed this trend.
IAI chairman Yair Shamir has told AIN that the group does not expect to see a recovery in the civil aerospace sector until 2011. But the group’s exposure to this historic downturn has been reduced by its broad product portfolio, which also has strong foundations in the defense and security sectors. Ahead of the publication of full 2009 results next month, Shamir disclosed that IAI came out of last year with an order backlog valued at $8.1 billion–equivalent to around 2.7 years of sales.
