Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. may get as much as $400 million in incentives to build its new 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina, Governor Mark Sanford said in an interview today.

Incentives offered by the state, including exemptions on sales tax and fuel used in test flights, may be $250 million to “a little more than $400 million, depending on how you cut the apple,” Sanford said after Boeing’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new assembly plant in North Charleston.

Boeing, the second-biggest commercial-plane maker after Airbus SAS, announced the South Carolina location Oct. 28 after failing to reach a no-strike deal with Seattle-area workers. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers shuttered Boeing factories four times in 20 years with walkouts, including a two-month strike in 2008.

“It’s all about competitiveness,” Jim Albaugh, head of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit, told reporters after today’s ceremony. “Coming here will help us sell airplanes.”

Albaugh said earlier that the move to South Carolina will add jobs in the southeastern U.S. state as well as in Washington, home to Boeing’s Seattle-area manufacturing hub.

Boeing will get a “combination of statutory incentives available to any company and some sales-tax exemptions specific to the company,” Sanford said. “There are some special incentives in terms of exemptions that were important to make the case for South Carolina versus other places.” Details won’t be public for another year, in compliance with state law, he said.

New Facility

The new facility, adjacent to a parts plant Boeing bought in July, will be the company’s first such factory outside of Washington state. The new line is intended to help Chicago-based Boeing recover from delays that have set the 787 back more than two years.

The plant will be completed by mid-2011, Tim Coyle, vice president of the Charleston site, told reporters. Deliveries of 787 airplanes from the new facility will begin by July 2012, he said.

Boeing has about 840 orders for Dreamliners, making it the most successful new-plane sales campaign ever. The 787 is made mainly of lightweight composites in a new manufacturing process that relies on vendors to make large parts of the aircraft for Boeing to assemble.

The jet is scheduled to fly for the first time by the end of the year and be delivered by late next year. The original target was May 2008.

Boeing is examining its order books to determine which customers will get deliveries from each of the two facilities, said Marco Cavazzoni, vice president of final assembly and deliveries at Charleston.

‘Open Minded’

“Customers are being very open-minded” in collaborating with Boeing in determining which plant will deliver their airplanes, Cavazzoni said.

South Carolina’s incentive package, approved by the legislature and signed by Sanford, requires Boeing to invest at least $750 million and create 3,800 full-time jobs during a seven-year period.

Boeing gained 20 cents to $51.63 at 2:40 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares gained 21 percent this year through yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Charleston, South Carolina via gratnam1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 20, 2009 14:45 EST