Boeing Co is reviewing what impact US sanctions against two top Russian arms firms could have on its business in Russia, Boeing country head Sergei Kravchenko told Reuters on Wednesday.
The United States announced sanctions on Friday on seven firms from Russia, India, North Korea and Cuba for selling restricted items to Iran, which Washington fears is trying to make nuclear weapons.
Analysts have said Russian state companies might be less inclined to do business with Chicago-based Boeing because of the sanctions. "Boeing will be reviewing the State Department sanctions, imposed last Friday, to ensure that the Boeing company will be in full compliance with all the requirements of US government and Russian legislation," Kravchenko said.
"However, until we complete our assessment we will not know what impact, if any, there will be on Boeing's business in Russia," said Kravchenko, who heads Boeing in Russia and the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States.
The US sanctions were imposed on Russian state export agency Rosoboronexport headed by a close friend of President Vladimir Putin and state-owned warplane maker Sukhoi. A Kremlin spokesman has called the sanctions "an unfriendly act towards Russia" and said Russia could not rule out negative consequences for the US-Russian relationship.
Boeing previously announced plans to invest $27 billion in Russia over the next 30 years. This includes $18 billion in purchases of titanium and titanium products and $5 billion on intellectual, design and engineering services.
Another $4 billion will be invested in projects including the International Space Stations, the Sea Launch project which uses a mobile sea platform for commercial spacecraft launches and broadband Internet access from aircraft. Boeing is bidding against Airbus to supply a $3 billion long-haul plane contract to Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot.
The company also buys about 35-40 percent of its titanium products from VSMPO-Avisma which Rosoboronexport says it is close to acquiring. VSMPO Chairman Vyacheslav Bresht told Reuters on Monday that supplies to Boeing would survive the sanctions. VSMPO is the world's largest producer of titanium. Titanium has risen in value in the last year as aircraft manufacturers use more of the light metal in new long-range models designed to burn less fuel.
Kravchenko declined to comment on how the sanctions would affect specific deals or tenders, saying lawyers needed to analyse the impact, if any, from the sanctions.
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