Aerospace Diary

Exclusive Time: 11.26 AM IST April 5, 2011 Neelam Mathews As the government looks at announcing more clauses to its defense offsets policy this summer, expected to  now include transfer of technology, OEMs could be looking at titanium as a way of meeting the country's obligatory offset requirements. With civil aviation included under the defense offsets umbrella and new gen aircraft like the Boeing 787 requiring lighter metals, this might prove to be a winner, officials say. While there are efforts in this direction already, ( http://aerospacediary.blogspot.com/2010/12/titanium-supply-could-become-part-of.html ), India remains a slow starter.  India is estimated to import around 60,000 tons of titanium dioxide every year. Interestingly during question hour in parliament last year, one of the reasons for the delay in developing the Kaveri engine for the LCA was attributed to the  non-availability of critical materials, such as  nickel and titanium based alloys ...

Aerospace Daily Dec 24, 2010 NEW DELHI — As international defense providers look to honor their offset commitments in India, partnerships to help tap the country’s vast titanium reserves could emerge as an attractive proposition. The main sources of titanium in India are beach sands in its southern and eastern states that contain monazite and ilmenite. But despite these resources, titanium still must be imported because of a lack of indigenous capability to convert titanium ore into metal. While mining in India remains the bastion of government- owned enterprises, if the means of producing the metal domestically become available, sourcing titanium for defense projects could become a part of offset packages, one vendor says. Efforts already are underway with the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) and stateowned Kerala Minerals & Metals Ltd. (KMML) to establish a titanium dioxide plant that is expected to have an annual capacity of 500 tons. The project, which...