MOSCOW. March 30 (Interfax-AVN) - West Europe's Airbus Company has issued a tender on placing contracts with Russian aircraft-building enterprises, the Airbus Moscow office told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
"The Airbus Company has issued a tender on placing a number of contract with Russian aircraft-building enterprises, envisioning production of airframe units and assemblies for A330/A340 and A320 aircraft for a total of USD10m per year," an Airbus official in Moscow said.
According to him, Airbus has sent official requests to the Kaskol Group of Companies, the Irkut Corporation, and the Voronezh Aircraft-Building Enterprise on placing contracts on a tender basis.
"Contracts with a Russian company, which wins the tender, will be signed after a number of meetings with participants in the tender and evaluation of their offers," the official said.
According to him, the contracts will enable the Russian aircraft-building industry to participate in Airbus flagship programs. The program of manufacturing Airbus aircraft components in Russia is aimed at gradually increasing the volume of contracts, with the ultimate objective of bringing the annual volume of contracts placed up to USD40m in years to come. At the same time the overall cost of such contracts, placed in Russia, will amount to about USD400m.
In December 2003 Airbus signed a contract with the Russian Sokol aircraft plant on manufacturing the framework of fuselage sections 13/14 for A320 aircraft. Mechanical processing of the airframe components is to be carried out at the Irkut Corporation plant, based in Irkutsk, while the follow-up assembly is to be carried out at the Nizhny Novgorod-based Sokol Plant. The first floor framework deliveries to the Airbus plant in Molta, France, are slated for early 2005.
Airbus also cooperates with Russian aircraft-building industry in research and development, design, certification, material procurement, and training of Russian experts. The ECAR engineer center, a joint venture of Airbus and Kaskol, employs about 50 Russian engineers, with their number expected to increase up to 100 by late 2004. Russian experts design fuselage parts, carry out strength calculations, and develop documentation on avionics mounted.
Within a decade turnover of cooperation between Airbus and the Russian aircraft-building industry is expected to amount to EUR800m.
Airbus is a transnational company, comprising design and production centers in France, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain, as well as its affiliate offices in the U.S., China, and Japan.