(Yicai Global) Sept. 10 -- Boeing plans to put up its second aircraft modification production line in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to greatly lift its capacity to meet skyrocketing demand for cargo aircraft, the company announced yesterday.

The Chicago-based aircraft colossus will run the project with its local partner, Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering, a unit of China Southern Airlines, to reconfigure its Boeing 737-800 passenger aircraft into the freight-bearing 737-800BCF. The new plant is slated to be operational by next year, Southern Daily reported today.

Able to haul a payload of up to 23.9 metric tons, the Boeing 737-800BCF is mainly designed for domestic express cargo deliveries. Its business is taking off as China becomes the world’ s biggest express delivery market on the wings of its soaring e-commerce.

This new investment announcement comes just three months after the company’s first local plant switched on. Boeing also has similar production lines in Shanghai and the eastern province of Shandong.

The aviation jumbo has delivered a total of 36 such planes in China since the first 737-800BCF touched down in April 2018. The country is expected to claim 30 percent of the global refurbished cargo aircraft market in the next two decades, per the announcement.

Editor: Ben Armour