Comments by "Philip B" (@philipb2134) on "H I Sutton" channel.

I was in the titanium trade in the early 80'. The Soviet Union had been supplying good percentage of titanium sponge (the raw mterian before processing into intermediates of final products), but reduced exports to a trickle, causing price spikes and much disruption. The excuse they gave at the time was that they were making titanium busts and statues of Lenin for all the towns and cities in Russia, but it was widely known that the missing Ti was going into submarines.
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I doubt that this pizza over excuse was believed. Production of Ti sponge is expensive, nd the conversion from sponge to intermediates was also tricky and expensive.
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@chrisbrent7487 According to USGS, Japan now is the second largest producer of Ti sponge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_titanium_production
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@ЩанкинАлексей-и9д vas the faire
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@silverblank1139 such as you say. As it were, much of an aircraft using titanium from a British supplier, might get it from RR... which avoids the Kroll process.
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@irinalitvinova7823 , rutile is a raw material from which titanium metal is produced via the Kroll process, which is energy intensive. Remember, Ti also is used a lot in chemical engineering and marine applications due to its resistance to corrosion.
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