By Dan Catchpole
SEATTLE, March 6 (Reuters) - Boeing is closing in on one of the largest sales in its history, a 500-aircraft order for 737 Max jets set to be unveiled when U.S. President Donald Trump travels to Beijing for his first state visit to China since 2017, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The two sides are also in talks for a widebody sale that includes about 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X jets, the report said.
Shares of the company were up 3.7%
in afternoon trading.
Reuters was not able to confirm the report. Other sources told Reuters the deal is still in negotiations and that several sticking points are unresolved.
Boeing declined to comment.
China is also in talks for another 500-jet order with Airbus that would be in addition to the Boeing deal. That deal has been in on-off negotiations since at least 2024.
Boeing and officials from China and the U.S. have been in talks over a large jetliner deal for months.
China once made up about 25% of Boeing's order book, but now Boeing has only 133 orders from Chinese airlines - about 2% of its order book.
Trump plans to visit China from March 31 to April 2, with Xi expected to visit Washington later in the year.
This follows Trump's threat to impose export controls on Boeing plane parts in Washington's response to Chinese export limits on rare earth minerals.
During clashes with Trump over trade, Beijing in April ordered Chinese airlines to temporarily stop taking deliveries of new Boeing jets. They resumed later that spring.
The planemaker has also landed several large sales from foreign carriers following visits by Trump.
(Reporting by Parth Chandna in Bengaluru and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Alan Barona and David Gregorio)
