Key Points
AS UKRAINE COMES under mounting pressure on the battlefield, Europe is desperately scrambling to boost its puny production of artillery shells and missiles..
In January the EU admitted that it had fallen well short of its pledge to provide Ukraine with one million shells by March 2024..
The trouble is that explosive makers are unsure that production can be cranked up and fear that the quirks of the industry will hamper the surge that Ukraine needs to remain competitive on the battlefield..
A case in point: Rheinmetall, an ammunition provider, is building an explosives complex in Hungary; yet production will only start in 2027..
The rhetoric from European governments is bullish and it is true that some progress is being made: EU-wide annual shell production is projected to reach at least 1.4m by the end of 2024, up from around 500,000 a year ago..
