Despite the war, the West trades titanium with Russia; interdependence does not allow ties to be severed.

In the first seven months of 2024, Russian titanium exports amounted to over $120M, with 33% of supplies going to France and the rest being shipped to the UAE, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Estonia, and Singapore. At the same time, Russian imports of titanium raw materials reached $125.8M, of which 52% came from China. Russia needs titanium to produce weapons, including missiles.

In 2023, China had the largest total reserves of titanium minerals in the world, followed by Mozambique, South Africa, Australia, and Canada.

Russia has one of the largest titanium raw material deposits in the world, accounting for 14.5% of global reserves. However, Russia’s contribution to the global production of titanium concentrates is only 0.03% given the difficulty in developing its deposits, owing to the complex geological conditions at the deposits. Russia supplies alloys for 33% of the global aviation sector.

This dependence on Russia prevents Western countries from imposing sectoral sanctions on importing and exporting Russian titanium.