Ukrainian defence firm reveals how much it costs to build gunpowder plant in Ukraine

Artur Kryzhnyi — Tuesday, 1 October 2024, 11:44

Ukrainian Armour, a Ukrainian defence industry firm, has received a commercial proposal from a Western company to build a gunpowder plant worth €20 million in Ukraine.

Source: an Ekonomichna Pravda article (English translation coming soon)

Details: Company CEO Vladyslav Belbas specified that the proposal concerns a limited quantity of gunpowder, focusing solely on the nitrocellulose processing stage, which he noted is not the most complex part of the production process.

"Over the past three years, we've received only one proposal from a Western company to build a €20 million plant to process nitrocellulose into gunpowder. The proposal involved an annual output of 600 tonnes, enough to produce 160,000 rounds of 122 mm ammunition," Belbas explained.

He pointed out that if Ukrainian manufacturers had a stable supply of gunpowder and secured government contracts, the annual production of shells could rise by hundreds of thousands.

However, the gunpowder production facility is at significant risk of explosion if hit by Russian missiles, making it a vulnerable target for Russian strikes. Importing nitrocellulose from abroad also presents logistical challenges.

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