Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co., the second-largest commercial-plane maker and defense contractor, posted a loss in the year’s final three months after a strike shut factories and faulty parts slowed efforts to restart production.

The net loss was $56 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with net income of $1.03 billion, or $1.36, a year earlier, the Chicago-based company said in a statement today. Sales decreased 27 percent to $12.7 billion. Boeing said full-year sales may exceed analysts’ estimates, and its shares rose.

Boeing delivered 50 aircraft in the quarter, 70 fewer than planned, hurting revenue by $4.3 billion and setting it further behind rival Airbus SAS. Full production resumed in December, after workers replaced thousands of bad parts found during the eight-week machinists strike that ended Nov. 2. The walkout stripped $1.8 billion from full-year earnings.

The fourth-quarter loss “may have marked the nadir of Boeing’s fortunes in recent years,” Rob Stallard, a Macquarie Research Equities analyst in New York, wrote to clients today.

Excluding costs related to delayed 747 programs and litigation, Boeing earned 62 cents a share, compared with the 78 cent average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 17 analysts.

Full-year sales may be $68 billion to $69 billion, exceeding the average estimate of $67.9 billion, Boeing said. Its shares rose 77 cents to $43.99 at 9:39 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Profit may be $5.05 to $5.35 a share this year, trailing the average estimate of $5.70, Boeing said. The company didn’t issue a forecast in the previous quarter because of the strike and the global recession and credit crunch that were taking hold.

Outlook for Orders

Boeing faces a potential increase in canceled or deferred orders this year as airlines cope with a drop in travel demand and tight credit. It also must carry development costs on the delayed 787 Dreamliner, which is now due to reach the first customer in early 2010, about two years later than planned.

One order was recently canceled for Dreamliners scheduled to be delivered “late in the next decade,” reducing the plane’s backlog to 895 orders from 58 customers, Boeing said today. There had been 910 on the books.

“The progress we made in many areas of Boeing during 2008 was outweighed by the impact of the strike and our performance on some key development programs,” Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney said in today’s statement.

The Dreamliner delay drew engineers from other programs, causing slowdowns for other models including the 747-8 freighter and intercontinental passenger jet. The planemaker said the 747- related expenses cost it 61 cents a share.

“The failure to recover after the stoppage, the loss on the 747-8 and the continued engineering problems on the 787 make for a pretty telling charge list against Boeing management,” analyst Stallard wrote.

Delivery Forecast

Boeing said today it plans to deliver 480 to 485 planes this year, less than its July estimate of 500 to 505, and may have to provide $1 billion in financing to customers. It shipped 375 planes last year, below its earlier plan of at least 475 and the 483 delivered by Toulouse, France-based Airbus. Deliveries are critical to planemakers because that’s when they get paid.

The loss at Boeing’s commercial unit was $968 million, after a $973 million profit a year earlier, as the strike hurt earnings by $1.2 billion and the company took a $685 million charge for the 747-8 program.

Profit declined 10 percent to $881 million for defense. Sales dropped 48 percent for the commercial unit and 4 percent for defense. For the year, defense sales were unchanged at $32 billion.

Record Backlog

Boeing’s order backlog for commercial planes was $279 billion at year-end, compared with $276 billion as of Sept. 30. While that’s a record, declining fuel prices have removed some pressure on airlines to renew fleets at the same time that fewer banks are willing to finance purchases.

Almost a third of the world’s carriers are likely to defer deliveries this year, up from 8 percent three months ago, a survey released last week by UBS Investment Research showed.

Free cash flow for the year was negative $2.08 billion, after being positive $7.85 billion during 2007. Cash and marketable securities dropped by half to $3.6 billion at the end of December from Sept. 30 because of the strike, acquisitions and scheduled debt repayments.

To contact the reporter on this story: Susanna Ray in Seattle at sray7@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 28, 2009 09:42 EST