An international report traces a slowdown in sales of weapons and services destined for the military sector in 2021 due to concerns related to the pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said that sales of weapons and services to the military sector in 2021, while growing, “are affected by supply issues related to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, a situation that will stimulate demand. “
A report from this international institute states that the top 100 arms companies sold arms and services to the military sector totaling $592 billion, equivalent to about 562 billion euros in 2021, up 1.9% from 2020. However, this growth has been severely affected by widespread supply problems.
“The ongoing impact of the pandemic is already beginning to show in arms companies,” Nan Tian, a researcher at the Sipri Institute and author of the report, told AFP, while problems related to labor shortages and the provision of materials have “slowed down the ability of companies to produce weapons systems” and have been delivered on time.”
In this context, Tian noted, “In fact, we are seeing growth, perhaps slower than many expected, in arms sales in 2021.”
In this context, supply problems are expected to be exacerbated by the war in Ukraine “because Russia is a major supplier of raw materials for the production of weapons” and also because this conflict, according to the authors of the report, has led to an increase in demand.
Expert Nan Tian believes that it is still difficult to assess the level of this increase, which is associated with countries that helped Ukraine and which also need to replenish their stocks. The level of this increase is also linked to the deteriorating security situation, leading to “nations’ efforts to buy more weapons”.
While US companies still dominate the global arms market, accounting for more than half of global sales or $299 billion, the United States is the only region in the world that is seeing a decline in sales compared to 2020.
He noted that among the top five companies in the market, namely Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics, sales grew only at Raytheon.
At the same time, sales of the eight largest Chinese arms companies grew by 6.3% in 2021 to $109 billion.
As for European companies, which now account for 27 of the 100 largest companies, their turnover reached $123 billion, which is 4.2% more than in 2020.
This international report also tracks “a trend among private equity firms to buy arms companies, a development that the authors of the report believe” has become more evident in the last three or four years. They believe this trend threatens to make the military industry more opaque and therefore more difficult to trace.”
Source: AFP.