European aircraft manufacturer Airbus has urged the West not to impose an embargo on Russian titanium imports. Airline chief Guillaume Faury believes that such restrictive measures will not have a major impact on the Russian economy, but will seriously damage the global aviation industry. Fury made the relevant statement at the company's annual general meeting on April 12. He called the ban on imports of Russian titanium used to make modern airliners "unacceptable" and suggested dropping any sanctions.
At the same time, Fauri also said that Airbus has been accumulating titanium stocks for many years, and if the West decides to impose sanctions on Russian titanium, it will not have an impact on the company's aircraft manufacturing business in the short term.
Titanium is virtually irreplaceable in aircraft manufacturing, where it is used to make engine screws, casings, wings, skins, pipes, fasteners, and more. So far, it has not entered the sanctions programmes imposed by Western countries on Russia. Currently the world's largest titanium producer "VSMPO-Avisma" is located in Russia.
According to related reports, before the crisis, the Russian company supplied Boeing with up to 35% of its titanium needs, Airbus with 65% of its titanium needs and Embraer with 100% of its titanium needs. But about a month ago, Boeing announced it was suspending metal purchases from Russia in favor of supplies from Japan, China and Kazakhstan. In addition, the U.S. company has drastically cut production due to quality issues with its new flagship Boeing 737 Max, delivering just 280 commercial aircraft to the market last year. Airbus is much more dependent on Russian titanium.
The European aviation maker also plans to ramp up production of its A320 jet, the 737's main competitor and which has taken a lot of Boeing's market in recent years. At the end of March, it was reported that Airbus had started looking for alternative sources to obtain Russian titanium in case Russia stopped supplying. But apparently, Airbus is finding it difficult to find a replacement. It should also not be forgotten that Airbus previously joined EU sanctions against Russia, which included a ban on Russian airlines from exporting aircraft, supplying spare parts, repairing and maintaining passenger aircraft. Therefore, in this case, Russia is very likely to impose an embargo on Airbus.
Union Morning Paper asked Roman Gusarov, editor-in-chief of the aviation portal, to comment: "Russia supplies titanium to the world's aviation giants and has become interdependent with the world aviation industry. In addition, Russia is not exporting raw materials, but already stamped and rough machining process products (aeronautical manufacturers do fine machining in their own enterprises). This is almost a complete industrial chain, not just a piece of metal. But it must be understood here that for Boeing, Airbus and other aerospace The VSMPO-Avisma factory where the company works is located in Sarda, a small town in the Urals. Russia still needs to stick to the fact that it is ready to continue supplying titanium and titanium products and maintain its position in the supply chain.”
Post time: Apr-27-2022