Depends on the contract but IIRC, the "standard" is lose your deposit whatever it was. Since the market for the 787, and others, is hot right now, they can resell the line position to someone else either by moving up an existing order or a new customer. Delivery position swaps are common but complete cancellations are rare.
If they do move up some orders, it might come closer to the original schedule for somebody's airplanes thus saving Boeing some penalties for their massive fumble in the original schedule.
Who's next in line? Are they a Quantas competitor? Great strategy in some ways if it is...competitor thinks they're going to get cheaper airplanes via penalties, then Quantas bows out.