Russia doubled purchases of explosives, – WSJ

Russia has increased its imports of nitrocellulose, critical for the production of artillery ammunition, from companies in the United States, Germany and Taiwan. This happened thanks to the Turkish company and despite the international sanctions aimed at the Russian Federation.

This is reported by RBC-Ukraine  with reference to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2022, imports of Russian nitrocellulose, which is an important component in the production of gunpowder and rocket fuel, increased by 70%. In the middle of 2023, the volume of deliveries amounted to 3,039 tons of the product, which is twice as high as in 2021.

The production of nitrocellulose is only in a few countries of the world due to international trade restrictions and the main use in ammunition.

After the introduction of US and EU sanctions, China increased its supplies of nitrocellulose to Russia. However, US, German and Taiwanese companies have also continued to supply explosives to Russia for the past two years, the WSJ reported.

The Russian importer Analytical Marketing Chemical Group has received $700,000 worth of nitrocellulose from Taiwan over the past two years. According to published information, this importer is a permanent partner of the Kazan State Gunpowder Plant, which specializes in the production of various weapons.

In addition, before the start of the war in Ukraine, Turkey provided less than 1% of Russian imports of nitrocellulose. According to Russian customs, until the middle of last year, the Turkish company Noy İç Ve Diş Ti̇caret provided almost half of Russian imports of explosives.

The German divisions of the New York company International Flavors & Fragrances sold about 80 tons of nitrocellulose to Noy, which shipped the material to Russia last year.

Taiwanese company TNC Industrial produced more than 500 tons of the compound, which Noy shipped to Russia last year. In addition, the Hagedorn-NC company, which operates in the western lowlands of Germany, produced the same amount of products over the past two years, which was also supplied to Russia.

The WSJ noted that the exports of Western companies to Russia are on against the background of the global shortage of nitrocellulose, which slows down the production of artillery for Ukraine by NATO countries.