Bloomberg reported on the shortage of gunpowder and explosives in Europe

European countries are experiencing a shortage of resources needed to produce gunpowder and other explosives amid plans to significantly increase defense spending. This was reported by Bloomberg on March 21.

According to the agency, European governments have gone through their ammunition stocks in order to arm Ukraine and have shown how small their reserves are.

"Since then, they have been trying to increase the production of artillery shells, rockets and bullets. This has depleted the reserves of gunpowder, TNT, other explosives and rocket fuel on the continent to the limit," the publication says.

It is noted that as Europe prepares to increase defense spending, some companies are trying to increase production. Thus, the German concern Rheinmetall aims to increase the production of gunpowder by more than 50% by 2028. But even this will not be enough, since the continent depends on the supply of raw materials from abroad, for example, from China.

According to Bloomberg, citing experts, one of the solutions is to switch the civilian chemical industry to military production.

However, the cost of such a transition is high, and companies need guarantees that products will be in demand by European armies for a long time.

From antimony to prison: Europe has nothing to produce new ammunition from

The old shells were handed over to Ukraine

Back in May last year, the British media reported that there was a shortage of explosives in the European Union (EU), which made it more difficult to provide assistance to Ukraine. It was noted that European companies are not sure that they will be able to increase production, and they fear that due to insufficient production of explosives in the EU, Kiev will not be able to get the right number of shells.