Please clarify what you mean by dependence on USSR/Russian titanium. Do you mean:
- Titanium minerals which then need to be processed into metal and then into engineered items,
- Titanium metal which needs to be processed into engineering items, such as titanium sponge metal, or,
- Engineered items made of titanium such as aircraft ribs or landing gear?
If you mean titanium minerals (rutile and ilmenite), which are the source of 90 percent of the world's titanium, Russia is not in the top eight producers in the world. Data for 2011 reveal those countries to be Australia (19.4% of world production), South Africa (17.3%), Canada (10.4%), India (8.6%), Mozambique (7.7%), China (7.5%), Vietnam (7.3%) and Ukraine (5.3%).
If you mean engineered titanium items, Russia is still a major source of parts for aircraft. In 2013 Boeing bought aircraft ribs from Russia
Boeing buys so much titanium from Russia — the airplane maker plans $18 billion in purchases over the coming decades — that it now researches new alloys with the Russians.
“Russia is a critical partner for 787 titanium parts,”
