Boeing, Rostec agree to open new Ural Boeing manufacturing plant in Russia

Boeing and Rostec signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their joint venture by establishing a second Ural Boeing Manufacturing (UBM) production facility. The UBM facility will make titanium parts in the Urals in the Titanium Valley of Russia. In July 2009, Boeing and VSMPO-AVISMA, Russia’s largest titanium producer, opened a 50/50 equity joint venture, UBM, based in Verkhnyaya Salda, Russia. UBM is a state-of-the-art facility that machines titanium forgings for the world’s most technologically-advanced airplanes, the 787-8 and -9 Dreamliners. Boeing forecasts that over the next decades it will spend approximately $27bn on Russian titanium, aerospace design-engineering services and a variety of other services and materials. VSMPO-AVISMA has been a Boeing partner and supplier of raw material and titanium parts through a series of long-term purchasing agreements dating back to 1997, when Boeing awarded its first contract to the Russian titanium producer.