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Heckler & Koch assault rifle
Photo: Nicolas Armer / dpa
Amid the Ukraine war, two German arms manufacturers have reported rising profits.
In the first quarter, the operating result rose by 8 million euros to 92 million euros compared to the same period last year, Rheinmetall announced on Friday in Düsseldorf.
Net profit increased by 3 to 61 million euros.
Sales, on the other hand, remained roughly the same at around 1.3 billion euros.
The armaments company Heckler & Koch, which, in contrast to the tank and artillery manufacturer Rheinmetall, only produces handguns, also made more profit at the beginning of the year.
Despite the stagnation in sales, Rheinmetall boss Armin Papperger still expects a strong growth spurt of 10 to 15 percent for the year as a whole.
The prerequisite for this is that Germany, as planned, provide an investment package of a good 100 billion euros in order to bring the Bundeswehr into shape by purchasing weapons and other armaments.
These purchases would take several years.
A clear indication that the tills are ringing is that Rheinmetall's order books are filling up.
In the artillery and ammunition division, for example, incoming orders increased fivefold in the first quarter to 1.1 billion euros.
A major ammunition order from Hungary, worth several hundred million euros, played a central role here.
Weapons from the old stock
Shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine, Rheinmetall presented a list of relatively quickly available military products, including tanks, trucks and ammunition.
The Düsseldorf arms manufacturer hopes that the federal government will access at least part of the product list.
In addition, given the threat posed by Russia, Rheinmetall is likely to receive more orders from other countries.
The armaments group wants to deliver Marder armored personnel carriers and Leopard battle tanks to the Ukraine – both of the models on offer are old, but are to be modernized.
Company boss Papperger rated the quarterly figures on Friday as proof that Rheinmetall is continuing on its successful course.
While Rheinmetall is the largest German armaments group, Heckler & Koch is one size smaller.
The assault rifle manufacturer was still in the red a few years ago, but things are looking better now.
In the first quarter, sales soared by 22.2 percent to EUR 77.5 million, and net profit more than doubled from EUR 3.3 million to EUR 8.1 million.
Company boss Jens Bodo Koch said that the demand from neighboring countries of Russia has increased since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 - this already high demand will probably increase against the background of the Ukraine war.
"States on NATO's eastern flank are stockpiling or renewing their weapons stocks - investments are being made in equipment to ensure defense capability."
The Heckler & Koch manager did not say which orders were added in the first quarter of the year.
It is known, however, that the armaments company has delivered assault rifles to Norway, Lithuania and Latvia in the past, for example - these are framework agreements that can be reordered.
Both companies are recruiting staff.
Heckler & Koch had 1086 employees at the end of March, 58 more than a year earlier.
In the Rheinmetall Group, the number of full-time employees rose by 1,038 to 20,700 within a year.
mike/dpa