Titanium, nickel, aluminum and composite materials are missing; the research stops: the Aerospace District of Campania (DAC) launches its alarm. «The war between Russia and Ukraine brings businesses to their knees. In some cases they are stopping production due to the difficulty of finding raw materials ”, says the president of the DAC, Luigi Carrino, just a few minutes after having held a meeting on the subject with the companies in the district.
Titanium for aerostructures
Let’s start with titanium, essential for forming alloys with which to build aerostructures and particularly suitable for aeronautical structures in combination with carboresin. The alarm went off for about ten days. Russia is the largest titanium producer in the world and is the country from which Italy imports around 60% of its needs. With the war, and especially with the sanctions adopted by the West, mining slowed down and imports stopped. Among other things, it seems, even before the sanctions were triggered, in the face of the risk of a long blackout, some of the major international aeronautical manufacturers have bought up all the titanium available, leaving small and medium-sized companies dry. “We buy titanium from Russia through Boeing, our largest customer, and in a certain sense we are facilitated because we do not suffer the increases – says Giovanni Abete, CEO of the homonymous company that builds components for aerostructures and engines – Despite this we are very worried about several reasons: Boeing’s supplier is Russian Vsmpo, one of the largest manufacturers in the world, which is on the list of sanctioned companies. So today everything is at a standstill. Nickel is also nowhere to be found. We placed an order last week which was rejected because the price has risen by 90% due to ongoing speculation ».
Composite materials
Composite materials are also scarce, although they often come from Russia. Andrea Esposito, administrator of the Benevento Laer explains: «We need it for the construction of parts of the A220 Airbus. But difficulties in finding raw materials and skyrocketing prices forced us to stop some lines ».
Research
Another hot topic is research: programs involving Russian and Ukrainian scientists risk failure. Like Exomarx, the probe to be launched on Mars. After Covid, the departure was postponed to summer 2022. The Capodimonte Astrophysics Observatory in Naples created the “Micromed” sensor to be installed on a Russian platform. «The mission is in difficulty – says the director Marcella Marconi – there is a risk of cancellation. The Campania Region has allocated 1 million and we have been working on it for years ». We then try to recover the collaboration with the Ukrainian professor Elena Bannikova, of the University of Kharkiv. «The national institute of astrophysics – adds Marconi – tries to help the teacher to come to Italy. We know that you want to leave the country, we are waiting for you, but for the moment we have no news of you ».