Orders at last for Gidromash from German companies for aviation parts

Published: 3/28/2000

It appears that the dire outlook for Nizhni Novgorod based landing gear producer Gidromash in the middle of last year, given few orders and little prospect of more from domestic customers appears to have improved. German companies that had been considering the capabilities of the plant to supply aviation parts for some time are beginning to place orders. According to the company, around a dozen German companies have placed orders with the plant, with additional orders coming from producers in France and the UK. Joining the Russian customers of Nizhni Novgorod based plant, KnAPPO in Komsomolsk-On-Amur (which supplies Su-30s to China) and IAPO (with deliveries to India). Over the last few years, Gidromash has been restructured to streamline its operations and in an effort to counter the falling demand from aircraft producers, has attempted to find new customers and new products to utilise production capacity. In a poor domestic market, Gidromash and Aviaagregat, the other Russian under carriage producer, have both investigated the potential for business abroad. By 1999, Gidromash was exporting landing gear components into Europe for aircraft in the Airbus family, including the A-321 and A-323, and aircraft components cylinders for cranes and lifting machinery to Germany and dampers for US companies. The major foreign aviation companies that have dealings with Gidromash include Litton Aerospace and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace in Germany, Umbra Cuccinetti in Italy and Messier-Dowty in the UK. Gidromash started supplying parts for the A-321 and A-310 to Litton in 1991 with the value growing from DM66,000 to expected exports of $2m in 2000. Gidromash supplies rods to DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, with the current order being the third in the last two years. DASA actually supplies the titanium blanks from outside of Russia and an agreement is believed to be forthcoming to deliver titanium directly to Gidromash from its Russian producer, thus reducing costs. Gidromash supplies Umbra Cuccinetti with cylinders for landing gears, and has a contract in 2000 worth $200,000. For UK based Messier-Dowty, the plant machines a number of alloy components for inclusion in landing gear for a number of customers including Dornier. During 2000 Gidromash will also be supplying four landing gear sets for the Yak-130 trainer being produced jointly in Russia and Italy . Last year, aviation products made up 20% of Gidromash's export business, the remaining 80% being cylinders and other parts such as shafts for excavators. Gidromash's foreign customers see their relationship with the company as being very much a proving period for the plant. One customer commenting that they had been pleased with the quality of the machining on a limited range of parts and were therefore steadily increasing the specification of the work and extending the range of materials being used. With firm orders and steady revenues, Gidromash has reported revenues of 300m rubles in 1999, an increase of around 82% on 1998. The management has plans to reach a target of 500m rubles (around $17-18m) in 2000. According to Vladimir Luzyanin, President of Gidromash, this increase was due to a considerable growth in exports, with workshops operating in two or sometimes three shifts, six days a week. This is a significant change from the mid-1990s when the resumption of even partial production seemed to be a challenge.

Article ID: 1745