Honeywell, Howmet juggle rising defense demand and commercial aerospace boom

March 17 (Reuters) – Executives from Honeywell Aerospace and Howmet Aerospace said on Tuesday they could grow capacity to meet strong commercial demand for plane parts and munitions as the defense sector ramps up due to geopolitical strife.

U.S. aerospace suppliers are benefiting from strong demand from jetmakers Boeing and Airbus, which are increasing production of new aircraft. And governments around the world are investing in their defense capabilities, as the wars in Ukraine and Iran deplete missile stockpiles.

Planemakers are speaking with suppliers and customers as they try to gauge the impact of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has pushed oil prices to around $100 a barrel and disrupted flights and shipping.

Howmet CEO John Plant said the supplier of castings and fasteners could meet targets from Boeing and Airbus to ramp up narrowbody output, but immediately meeting additional demand from growth in production of large long-haul jets would be a challenge.

“I don’t think we could support all of that at the moment,” Plant told the Bank of America Global Industrials Conference in London. “My suspicion is that we would actually have to put more capacity down to achieve that level of production.”

Honeywell Aerospace, which is being spun off during the third quarter of 2026, expects high single- to low double-digit growth for defense and high single-digit growth for commercial planemakers this year.

“We don’t see the defense demand … waning at all,” Honeywell Aerospace CEO Jim Currier told the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference in Washington, D.C.

“The heightened geopolitical concerns and conflicts that are happening around the world, and have been for quite some time, are fueling a substantial amount of investment in the defense sector,” he said.

Honeywell Aerospace makes engines for business jets, and navigational products, along with other parts for both the commercial sector, which makes up about 60% of its business, and defense, which accounts for the remaining 40%.

Honeywell said last year it would separate its aerospace and automation businesses into separate entities, alongside its previously announced spin-off of the advanced materials unit.

(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal and Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Joe Bavier)