French industrial software company Dassault Systemes announced Tuesday it has reached a deal with US aerospace giant to modernise its production system, in what it said was its biggest ever contract.
"Boeing will expand the deployment of products developed by Dassault Systemes," the company said in a statement, confirming information published by French newspaper Le Figaro.
The paper, which is owned by Dassault Systemes, said "Boeing has signed a 30-year contract worth a billion dollars, renewable every 10 years".
Contacted by AFP, Dassault Systemes declined to confirm the value of the deal, but said it is "the biggest in its history."
Dassault Systemes also said Tuesday its second quarter net profit was up 21.4 percent at 123 million euros ($143 million), and lowered some of its objectives to take into account the rise in the value of euro.
The partnership with Boeing will focus on the use of its 3DEXPERIENCE software "to design future products, to modernise the entire production system and to deploy new services", Le Figaro said.
It will hasten the digital switchover of Boeing's production system and to give it "a competitive advantage in the commercial field, by reducing excessive delivery times", Le Figaro said.
Boeing and its European rival Airbus have years of backlogs of orders for the most popular models of their commercial aircraft, and they get paid only when they deliver planes to their clients.
