LONDON, April 24. /TASS/. Canada has allowed Airbus to use Russian titanium despite the sanctions Ottawa imposed against the VSMPO-Avisma corporation, Reuters reported.
Russian state-backed VSMPO-Avisma has for years been the industry's largest titanium supplier, Reuters noted.
"Airbus is aware of the Canadian government imposing sanctions on VSMPO and has obtained the necessary authorization to secure Airbus operations in compliance with the applicable sanctions," the company said in a statement, which is cited by Reuters.
So far, the representatives of the Canadian government preferred to refrain from comments on this topic.
According to the news agency, the move gives Airbus flexibility in its Canadian plants where the Airbus A220 is now partially assembled. However, according to experts interviewed by the agency, this aircraft model does not require a large number of titanium components, unlike the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.
As Reuters notes, sanctions against VSMPO-Avisma could potentially create problems when exporting aircraft built abroad using Russian titanium to Canada. Such cases may also require special permissions from the competent authorities. Airbus has previously repeatedly warned that restrictions on Russian titanium could deal a severe blow to the Western aircraft industry, while the damage to the Russian economy would be insignificant.
"Our own sanctions shouldn't cause so much harm that we end up damaging ourselves significantly," a source directly familiar with Canada's policy told Reuters.