Zee Beam News

01.06.2006 MosNews - The Boeing Co., the world's second-largest commercial-aircraft maker, expects to spend $27 billion in Russia on raw materials and services over the next 30 years to profit from the country's engineering resources and metal supplies, Boeing Russia President Sergei Kravchenko said on Wednesday, May 31. The information was reported by the Bloomberg agency. Boeing will buy $18 billion worth of Russian titanium and $5 billion worth of intellectual and engineering services for its commercial aircraft programs and spend $4 billion for Boeing's other departments, Kravchenko said in a telephone interview from Moscow. Chicago-based Boeing and larger rival Airbus are competing for a $3 billion plane order from OAO Aeroflot, Russia's largest airline, which said last year that it will choose between Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and Airbus' A350. Airbus Senior Vice President Axel Krein said Feb. 21 that his Toulouse, France-based company is in talks with Russian officials on $25 billion worth of partnerships including development of new aircraft. "This is not a reply to Airbus' $25 billion proposal," Kravchenko said. "These are concrete plans for cooperation work we already have in Russia." Boeing's design center in Moscow contracts out work with 1,200 Russian engineers helping develop wing flaps and the nose section of the planned 787 model. VSMPO-Avisma, the world's biggest titanium producer, is already shipping parts for the 787 made of the metal.