...Airbus continues to raise A320 production to historical highs. Narrow-body production is booked out for the next few years, but the civil aerospace supply chain is creaking as volumes continue to ramp up. Forgings, castings, and the availability of some raw materials remain sources of bottlenecks. Wide-body production to remain flat through 2024. Although long-haul routes are back, they are yet to reach capacity. As a result, we don't expect demand for, and production of, wide-body aircraft to exhibit the same ramp-up as narrow-body planes until at least end-2024. Defense fundamentals are even stronger than before. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has spiked demand for products like battlefield radar, unmanned aerial vehicles, and munitions. Rising defense budgets are enabling the European issuers that we rate to win some large contracts....
