26 Mar 2019 10:32

Manturov: U.S. lost $200 mln by cancelling supply of composite materials for MC-21

LANGKAWI (Malaysia). March 26 (Interfax) - U.S. manufacturers of composite materials have lost $200 million by cancelling supplies for Russia's Irkut MC-21, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov told the press.

"We have found a way to resolve this problem. Yes, we will have an approximately six-month delay, but when that happens we will definitely not return to the suppliers who had a chance to do the job earlier. Speaking in monetary terms, this means about $2 million per plane," Manturov said.

"Well, someone seems to be not interested or not seeing an advantage. Multiplying by 70 or, in the future, 100 vehicles, the colleagues have lost this order from their current portfolio," he said.

Manturov told Interfax earlier that Asia Pacific countries, among them Indonesia, are a key market for the promotion of new Russian civilian planes and that they are holding talks on the supply of MC-21 aircraft. He said certification of MC-21-300 was a priority, and its completion would pave the plane's way to Russian airlines. Russia has established a domestic center designing composite power units for civilian aircraft as part of the MC-21 project. Prototypes of such MC-21 structures have been made of domestic component parts and tested. The initial results indicate that a replacement of materials will have no effect on the plane's characteristics.