Moscow, Januray 14, 2005 (MosNews)

Russian firm Sukhoi — the country’s major aircraft producer — posted profits of 45 billion rubles (about $1.6 billion) in 2004, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing the company’s press service.

The press service also said that the share of export products in the total sales volume amounted to about 95 percent.

The company’s plants mostly manufacture military-purpose products, while the share of civilian output in the total sales volume is about five percent, he said. In the future, the share of civil aircraft will increase, including through implementation of the Russian Regional Jet development project.

According to the official, the company’s revenues from independent exports of spare parts and servicing of earlier exported aircraft are growing.

“The volume of services provided in 2003 amounted to $15 million. Contracts worth a total of $135 million were implemented in 2004, and our plan is to bring the volume of services up to over $150 million in 2005,” he said.

Sukhoi worked on 10 direct contracts on spare part supplies and aircraft servicing in such countries as Algeria, Belarus, China, India and Kazakhstan in 2004, the official added.

“Sukhoi expects to get at least 80 percent of the market of spare parts for earlier supplied Su planes. The market is estimated at $1 billion for the next few years,” he said.

According to him, Sukhoi is number 28 on the list of the world’s 100 leading defence industry companies posted by Defence News. Experts say that the company accounts for 14 percent of global aircraft production and will account for 16 percent in 2015. Sukhoi’s products, including licensed and joint production, amount to 25 percent on the global warplane market.