VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation (Russian: ВСМПО-АВИСМА) is a Russian mining company and manufacturer and the world's third-largest producer of titanium sponge. Located in Verkhnyaya Salda, Russia, VSMPO-AVISMA also operates facilities in Ukraine, England, Switzerland, Germany, United States. The company produces titanium, aluminum, magnesium and steel alloys. VSMPO-AVISMA does a great deal of business with aerospace companies around the world. As of February 2022, VSMPO produced 90% of titanium in Russia and exported it to 50 countries all over the globe.
VSMPO is mostly owned by Industrial Investments LLC, whose main owner is the Russian billionaire Mikhail Shelkov.
VSMPO stands for VerkhneSaldinskoye Metallurgicheskoye Proizvodstvennoye Ob'yedineniye (Верхнесалдинское металлургическое производственное объединение, or Metal-producing company of Verkhnyaya Salda; and AVISMA for AVIatsionnyye Spetsial'nyye MAterialy or AVIation Special MAterials).
History
After Rosoboronexport obtained an 66% stake in October 2006 of VSMPO-Avisma, Sergey Chemezov became chairman of VSMPO-AVISMA in November 2006.
On 27 December 2007 US Boeing and VSMPO-AVISMA created a joint venture Ural Boeing Manufacturing (UBM) and signed a contract on titanium products deliveries until 2015. Boeing planned to invest 27 million dollars in the production of titanium parts for its needs.
Despite VSMPO-AVISMA being a Russian company, it was not affected by the American and European sanctions during the first phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War. In December 2020, the company was temporarily included in the American sanction list due to its connections with the Russian Armed Forces, but later the US lifted the sanctions against VSMPO-AVISMA.
In 2020, a criminal case against Mikhail Voevodin had broken out, former CEO of VSMPO-Avisma, about losses from transactions concluded in 2017–2019, when VSMPO-AVISMA sold ferrotitan to Swiss Interlink Metals and Chemicals AG and American Interlink Metals and Chemicals Inc at an undervalued price, and then bought products made from it at an inflated cost.
In November 2021, “VSMPO-AVISMA” and Boeing signed an agreement to increase producing capacity of UBM as well as project investment cost of R&D sector. The agreement maintains the role of “VSMPO-AVISMA” as the biggest titanium supplier for Boeing. Only four months later, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the agreement was terminated, as well as a 2007 agreement.[citation needed]
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several international companies ceased their collaboration with VSMPO-AVISMA. Thus, in March 2022, Rolls-Royce Holdings and Boeing suspended purchasing titanium from the company for an indefinite period.
In 2025, VSMPO-AVISMA filed legal action against American classical pianist and metal trader Igor Raykhelson, accusing him and several other parties of being responsible for the company suffering losses as a result of titanium being sold under market price and being repurchased above market price. Raykhelson has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and described the Russian criminal charges brought against him as “politically motivated” and “retaliatory.”
Specifically, it has been reported that Raykhelson's Swiss-based metal trading firm, Interlink Metals, was unable to make payments to VSMPO's German subsidiary since 2023 due to sanctions imposed on Russian companies following the invasion of Ukraine. Following this, VSMPO revived criminal charges and rewrote their allegations, this time expanding them and naming Raykhelson as part of the case.
In 2025, Raykhelson filed a petition to a Colorado court for VSMPO to share financial records which would disprove the allegations lodged against Interlink and Raykhelson.
He stated the material was intended to support his defense against the Russian fraud charges, which he characterized as retaliatory and connected to the parallel arbitration proceedings brought by Interlink Metals & Chemicals AG against VSMPO-AVISMA in Switzerland.
↑Анатолий Джумайло, Татьяна Дятел, Елизавета Кузнецова, Полина Хрестюхина (13 April 2018). "Нет титана в своем отечестве" (in Russian). Kommersant. Retrieved 7 March 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
12Journal, About the Author Timothy Mason Timothy Mason is a senior reporter at the Foreign Policy; Affairs, Covering Current; Michigan, business news He studied Economics at the University of; Years, Has Worked as a Journalist for Over Seven (31 August 2026). "Russian Titanium Giant VSMPO-AVISMA Embroiled in Legal Dispute With Igor Raykhelson". Retrieved 10 September 2026.{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
