Please consider Russia Threatens to Cut Off Crucial Titanium Exports to Boeing.
Russian lawmakers have submitted a wide-ranging bill that could freeze crucial exports to the United States.
The bill, which was drafted by leading lawmakers at the State Duma in response to the new round of U.S. sanctions announced last week, proposes a wide range of restrictions for U.S. businesses in Russia and for cooperation with the U.S. Among them is a proposal to ban or restrict titanium exports that are crucial for U.S. aircraft maker Boeing.
Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers are increasingly reliant on titanium as a strong but lightweight material for use in wing assemblies, steering wheels, hydraulic systems and a number of other parts, CNBC reports.
A Boeing 777 has up to 12 percent of titanium in its airframe, and Russia is the world’s largest titanium producer and the main supplier to Boeing.
Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told Russian news agencies that the bill could be put up for vote next week.
Stop the Nonsense
Sanctions on Russia and tariffs on China are both counterproductive. Nonetheless, here we go again.
Europe may not go along with Russia sanctions, so perhaps the US can get titanium via Europe, at extra cost, if Russia carries out the threat.
At a minimum, expect the price of titanium to rise.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
thank you for the article
“The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” Is that statement backwards now or is the world upside down?
Messy indeed. Rare earths are not so much rare as they are scattered. Yet, gold is mined even if the concentration is 1g per ton of rock with the cyanide method. If you are ready to pay 1000-2000 dollars per ounce, it’s possible.
History: Before the American Civil War, cotton was one of the most important traded commodities in the world, and most of it came from the US South. The Confederate States expected to use their control of that commodity to swing the evil Europeans over to their side and have them help defeat the North. But instead the Brits started growing cotton in British-controlled Egypt, and history took its course.
There are lots of all kinds of minerals distributed across the planet. The problem in North America is mainly excessive regulation — which could be changed with a stroke of the pen. Short-term, Russia could use its position as a titanium supplier to make life difficult for the West; longer-term, Russia would simply be creating competitors and losing market share.
Is that an honest question? If so, you probably shouldn’t read Mish.
“A Boeing 777 has up to 12 percent of titanium in its airframe, and Russia is the world’s largest titanium producer and the main supplier to Boeing.”
Huh? 12% of the world’s supply of titanium is used in each aircraft?
If anyone thinks mining rare earth metals and titanium from US soils is good they’re not seeing the whole picture. Even gold has an evil side. The metals we mine don’t just appear in the ground as ore they are nearly always mixed with other metals many of which are extremely poisonous. So frack away and dig up the countryside until all the poisons leach out into our rivers and underwater aquifers so we can all enjoy contaminated tap water and agriculture adulterated with traces of poisonous metals. Our seas are already full of plastics and mercury what’s a little extra cadmium in our lettuce. So go ahead, dig it all up, spray it with insecticide, prop it up with preservatives then store it in plastic and let the medical system take care of the increasing cancers and senility in the next generation of Americans. Hooray for infinite growth economics where corporate wealth is all that matters.
hear! hear! Guess it was awfully nice of Orange Julius to wait until markets were closed to start missile strikes. Daylight is coming soon in Damascus, will see what damage has been done.
There are plenty of rare earth deposits in the US. The thing is that China has been selling them so cheap that they’ve made it uneconomical to mine them in the US.
Agree about Liberals unjustifiably crying about Trump part.
Though, Russian Government has its own set of problems – bunch of state owned monopoly enterprises (Gazprom, RT …) and a lot of censorship if anyone dares to speak against government.
I think west libertarian minded persons should rather support Russian libertarian minded persons opposed to Russian government. Russian libertarians are not doing well in Russia either.
It is really sad that Democrats reacted to the people’s judgement on Crooked Hillary by inventing the story that Trump won only because the Russians interfered in the election. If not for that Democrat nasty lie, there would have been a very good chance that Presidents Trump & Putin would have cooperated quite effectively — both are patriots, looking out for the best interests of their countries.
But those lying Hillary supporters boxed President Trump in — any cooperation with Russia would have been pounced on as “evidence” of a quid pro quo for Russia screwing Hillary. Their extreme partisan stupidity unfortunately has real world consequences, for which we will all suffer.
Hey, @Mish. There is some problem with your blog. I have to register again and again with a new account to post comments. Earlier under “Gold’s Brick Wall” I posted this response, but I can see it only if I am signed in from my account. If I log out, then I can’t see it anymore (here is screen-shot with what I can see when logged in, but others probably can’t see):
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/maven-user-photos/mishtalk/economics/2Mt5Sb28dUCH14gnrMtkMg/GSnrLWY2ikCXq3Lw9fzlUA
Can you check where is the problem?
“Europe may not go along with Russia sanctions” I believe the exact opposite. Merkel, Juncker & ally love to sanction and punish Russia. Nothing has been learned from the uselessness of such actions. Kreml couldn’t give a hoot what they think. Free trade with Russia would solve a lot of problems in the long run but that would be too wise for our “leaders”.