Western allies have been supporting Ukraine with equipment and ammunition for over a year.
But there are problems with production.
Brussels/Kiev – Because explosives such as gunpowder or TNT are becoming scarce in the production of ammunition, there is a risk of delays in the necessary deliveries to Ukraine.
The
Financial Times reports.
The newspaper relies on assessments by industry insiders.
The newspaper's interlocutors largely agree that the emerging problems can only be solved over a longer period of time.
Jiří Hynek, head of the Czech Defense and Security Industry Association, warned in the report that you cannot increase production volume without raw materials.
But that is exactly what is becoming more and more of a problem in Europe at the moment.
Hynek told the newspaper that it would be "possibly three years" before the production volume of gunpowder, for example, could be increased using sufficient raw materials.
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Ammunition of the 155mm type in particular is used in large quantities every day during the Ukraine war.
© Anatolii Stepanov/AFP
Ukraine war: Europe's defense industry "not sufficiently well positioned"
An unnamed person from insider circles in Germany also quoted
FT.com
with a similar forecast: The "fundamental problem" is that "the European defense industry is not sufficiently well positioned for large-scale war production".
Production facilities in Spain and the Czech Republic, for example, are already running at 100 percent capacity, while negotiations are being held in Romania about a possible new production facility.
The last armaments factory of a similar kind was closed there in 2004.
One problem, however, is that the few European companies that produce substances such as TNT or nitrocellulose are already working at full capacity.
That's why you have to order raw materials from other parts of the world, such as India or South Korea.
Especially if you plan to increase manufacturing capacity with new production facilities.
Ammunition in the Ukraine war: Defense Minister speaks of 250,000 shells needed per month
However, the increased demand caused by the Ukraine war is also reflected in the prices.
The Financial Times
reports that these have doubled or even tripled in some areas, making support for Ukraine even more difficult and costly
.
She quoted the spokesman for a Spanish manufacturer of 155mm caliber shells.
According to the Kyiv Independent,
Ukraine
currently uses around 110,000 of these per month.
According to the report of the Ukrainian news site, the demand for ammunition from Ukraine remains high.
It was only at the beginning of March that the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov stressed to the EU that the country needed 250,000 artillery shells per month in order to successfully defend itself against Russia and possibly also to be able to regain areas.
(
saka
)
List of rubrics: © Anatolii Stepanov/AFP
